Melted by a Child
by Darka Silvath
Summary: The Bleed, a multi-dimensional tear in space and time. Harry Potter has been blessed and cursed with its power, watch the HP verse change with power as it was never meant to.
1. Fallen from Sky

**Melted By a Child**

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**Disclaimer**: This fic was started by Drackner Clawrus but he had agreed to let me take it over as with all the changes to FFNET he can't seem to upload anymore. This story idea was David's but I have modified it with some of the better ideas from his unwritten fics, who knows I might take them over as well if he likes what I've done with them.

**Parings**: Demona/Andrea, Harry/ Deliah, Elisa/ Goliath, David/ Fox

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**Prologue:**

The day had been strange enough for Mr Dursley of No.4 Private Drive. Flocks of Owls soaring in broad daylight, shooting stars, men and women in funny cloaks, and a name, a name he hoped never to hear again; Potter. The Potters; Mr Dursley had always aspired to a simple life, he didn't like unnatural change. Things should stay the way they were, technology could move forward, but the laws that had kept Britain strong should remain. Women getting the vote, he could tolerate it, though thank god his darling Petunia knew her place in the home. Men landing on the moon, good proving it could be done but they'd had the sense not to return in the good twenty odd years since the accomplishment.

He had regretted mentioning his suspicions to his wife, hearing the name Harry Potter had left him feeling like something was coming. Something terrible, something that would change the world, his unfounded fears were not all that consumed him. He looked at the Letter he had received requesting his aid in the construction of a project that would take nearly five years to build. They needed his answer by the end of the week. It was a job that would cause him to work through Grunnings and there was a hint of his promotion to head of his fathers company, a chance to reclaim his families position and win back his families honour in the business world.

As he watched a through the window he saw a street light fade and die, he turned in annoyance but then saw a flicker from the corner of his eye as another light joined the first in absolution. It almost seemed as if the light had left the street lamp and flown down the street. But that was impossible…. wasn't it? How impossible compared to shooting stars or the Potters? He continued to watch in cautious silence, he watched and saw an old man, dressed in the same robes of the people he had seen in the streets during the day. The man turned and appeared to converse with the cat on the wall, the cat he'd caught reading the map. It couldn't really have been reading the map could it? But how had it gotten the map in the first place?

He gasped in horror.

The Cat had jumped and shifted mid jump into the form of an older woman. What in the name of God was going on? Who were these monsters? Suddenly they both turned away from his house and looked into the sky a sudden roaring was heard. A black shape appeared in the sky, thundering towards them. He wondered how no one else could hear the noise. Gazing to his side and the crack of the half opened bedroom door he saw his wife. Calm and asleep, but that was also impossible. Petunia was the lightest sleeper he'd ever known, it was why she was always annoyed if he climbed into bed late.

A full moon hung in the sky as the dark shape passed in front of it, a bike? Rode by a giant of a man descended upon the ground. The man upon it heaved himself off within his warms was a small package. The strangers talked for a while before the huge one let out a monsters cry. The woman let out a startled cry "You'll wake the Muggles!" before swatting the man on one of his huge arms.

Muggles? What an earth did they… no they couldn't mean them. Humans? Could these people be beyond human? So many questions and yet, no way to receive any answers. The older man placed a slip of paper in the bundle and placed the bundle upon what looked like Mr Dursley' doorstep, Vernon couldn't quite see from the angle. After a few more loud sobs the giant climbed back upon the technological marvel and gunned the engine before flying off back into the night. Mr Dursley's logical mind began processing at super speed. These people must have access to some of the most advanced technology in the world to be able to perform these acts. The lights began to reappear in the street lamps, and as the woman became a cat once more the old man wandered to the edge of the street before turning on his heel and vanishing into the night.

The street lamps had returned to life and all was normal in the streets of Private Drive once more. Sighing in relief Vernon made preparations to see what had been placed upon his door step. What is it had been a bomb, after all the only thing he could think right now was that the Potters had been spies and Petunia as a link to their past had to be removed. Vernon Dursley was a hard man, he knew that but he was loyal to his family and Country. He was about to go when he saw a group of what looked like homeless men, slouching out of the shadows at the end of the street. Cautiously he tuned his gaze back to the strange scene before him, as the group approached his house something strange began to happen to them. They slouched over and simultaneously seemed to stand taller as the moons gaze descended upon them. Their shoulders arched and bones realigned, their faces shifted into mockeries of form. Vernon Dursley's eyes were wide in terror, not a single human looking man was left among them.

Then as one they fell forward onto clawed paws and sprung forward towards the house. A blue swathe cut through the night air the flash of red following it. The deformed creatures seemed to have spotted it as well for they paused in their prepared attack upon his home and aimed their talents towards it instead. The first creature to rush at the new arrival was torn in two by its sharp talons, the second had its face kicked in without a second thought the others that rushed towards their comrades' killer continued into deaths waiting maw as soon as the beast had finished with them. Wings flared violently on the blue beings back before casually draping themselves over its shoulders.

It approached their house ignoring the bodies strewn around it and reached his porch. He held out an arm and a yellow beam sprung forth, startled at the apparently concealed laser weapon Vernon waited tentatively for the explosion he knew would come. But nothing. And now the beast was reaching for something, the bundle that he had seen the strange trio deposit. Stroking it with a talon he heard more than saw the green flash of explosive power and heard and echoing through his mind "_Reborn, Rebirth Resurrection, Bleed, Coming, Reunion, Safety, Power, Realignment, Comfort, Mother, Mistake__**.**_" The random swathe of screamed words ran threw his head. Nothing could have prepared him for this. Vernon Dursley watched the figure fall to the ground the bundle bounced a few moments of torturous silence and inaction past, before the bundle moved and a small blue creature moved out. In nudged the larger blue creature and snuggled for warmth. Eventually the larger blue monstrosity moved and picked the smaller up, shooting a hesitant glance at the house it finally turned and with a running jump through itself into the sky, flaring its wings once before shooting up into the heavens above.

For several painful minutes Vernon Dursley was sure he could not move, but finally he gathered the courage to go down the stairs and cautiously open the door to gaze around. The Bodies of the creatures had begun to fade into stillness, though a few twitches from some were still noticeable. Pausing slightly Vernon picked up the crumbled letter on his door step, a red seal was printed across the back try as he might he couldn't pry the seal off, nor could he open the letter. Turning it over he found it was addressed to his wife rather than him. Closing the door he heard the sudden sounds of pops and cracks on the street. Rather than risk opening the door he peered through the letter box instead and saw the sight of men and women in robes pointing strange silver sticks at the bodies and throwing flames at them. It must be some new gun a kind of fire stick he considered.

Finally the bodies were reduced to ash, each cloaked figure turned on their heel and with a loud 'crack' disappeared.

Vernon Dursley walked back to his study, they had been planning on making it into a second bedroom for his son. But now Mr Dursley had another use for it. He reached for the printed letter with the job offer on it and considered once more before making his decision. No one and I mean no one was ever going to harm his family! As he picked up the phone and dialled the number he looked at the coloured pentagon that seemed like the flat top to a badge. "Hello, you have reached the Umbrella Cooperation's main office Employment Centre how may we direct your call…"

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Vernon Dursley was not the only person's day who had been disrupted by the defeat of the most feared Dark Wizard in decades. Demona had been meeting a third party client would had agreed to sell her experimental laser weaponry through a new company. But suddenly the deal had fallen through and she found herself in Britain with nothing to do. She had gone for a quite glide in the early hours of the morning, the amulet of Osiris let her body perceive that it was still night and remain in her active gargoyle form throughout the day instead of being encased in stone. The amulet was dangerous to use for to long as its side effects could include insomnia but that wasn't something that had ever bothered the immortal gargoyle yet and was thus ignored. Her first shock was being hammered by a flock of owls, one she'd though they only came out at night and two why were they flying in flocks when they were mostly solitary creatures. Taking a change of direction Demona had flown off to a different part of the county to avoid the owl ridden areas and had enjoyed the distinct displeasure of being hit by a series of shooting stars. They had been made of gold energy, thankfully not hot space rock. Demona had only died once before by having a meteorite slam into her and she was not in any hurry to suffer a repeat of the even in question.

She had finally headed to what looked like a boring neighbourhood to settle down quietly for the night in her stone form and avoid being knocked to pieces by a bunch of kids. She'd find a flight back to America the next night and have herself shipped in a cargo crate as a stone statue; it made getting past security so much easier. She'd perched herself on a roof when suddenly she'd noticed that the streetlights were being called from their containers to a figure on the streets corner. Watching cautiously encase of a trap she observed what must be a fey woman shift from the disguised form of a cat into a more feminine shape.

While the two conversed for a while they both then turned towards her. Ducking out of sight quickly and cursing how she could have been spotted Demona readjusted her position and looked out in time to hear a monstrous noise of engines descending from the sky. A giant looking man, so obviously a fey sat across the back of an enormous motor bike. As the bike stopped and the engine simmered into silence, the giant figure climbed from the massive cluster of metal and, carefully hefting the package in his arms before making his way triumphantly towards the two others waiting by the house.

As Demona watched the people conversing she heard a cry and startled the bundle of blankets was a child which was now awake, with a muttered word the child fell asleep once more and was deposited down upon the doorstep in the chilling winter air. The fey female shifted back into a cat before running off the giant climbed back aboard his metal monstrosity before heading back into the darkened sky towards the direction of the full moon. The old man hesitated then turned on the spot and flashed something in his hand returning the lights of the street lamps, before finally turning and disappearing with a pop from the displacement of air.

Demona heard the shifting of air and from her secure perched leaned out to see a group of unkempt humans marching slowly towards the house and the child. Taking to the air once more Demona looked at the men and gasped in shock. They had begun to shift into more dangerous looking animal like forms. They were heading towards the child, Demona was curious about why could this child be so interesting unless, was it a child of the fey?

She lowed herself to the ground and landed on the far side to observe the beasts. She was now directly opposite the house. Strangely the small neighbourhood was still quite from the events that had thus passed, the humans didn't even seem to be aware of the strange happenings around them, though thinking on the pathetic species Demona mused that, that wasn't too surprising. The Bestial creatures turned from their attack and before Demona could inquire of their intent, the furtherest from her foolishly leapt upon her. His jaw was severed with a flash of her talons. Demona was surprised even as the next leapt at her and had its brains reduced to mush by her taloned foot. They were so weak? Could these pathetic beings really be fey? Maybe they were enemies just like her, but if this was their aptitude for fighting they wouldn't serve as much more than cannon fodder anyway. As the last of the pack darted at her she decisively dealt with them with apparent ease, they really were pathetic.

She walked from the corpse towards the house and surveyed the area. The energy source coming from the child was in plain view, it had been deposited on the doorstep of one of the fowl humans proceeding to cast a light detection spell Demona found that the child was not malicious in nature though elements of the chaotic fey's magic was present within the creature. What ever it truly was, it did not seem to be malice's in nature, cautiously she bent down and lifted the bundle into her talons cradling it like she would a hatchelling to examine it carefully, while not letting it be taken from her by any inopportune lack of balance her wings could still present. The pale mob of thin dark hair moved as two pools of amber green gazed up at her with wonder. Two podgy little arms struggled to reach from the depths of the blankets towards her.

Demona cursed and nearly dropped the creature in disgust; she was holding a _human _child, contaminating herself with their filth. It was not possible for this child to be fey, it had traces of their magic but what ever had been done to it, it was not one of their unholy spawn. The strange child continued to struggle until it grasped one of her talons, giggling brightly it released before trying to drag the talon in view of its mouth. Demona was taken completely by surprise at the sudden bright flash of light that sprang forth from the child as a ball of green energy surrounded both of them. Demona fell to her knees in pain her wings caving in over her as the bundle grew and stretched. The last thing she heard before the cold hands of death claimed her once more was the sound of ripping as mounds of flesh shot through the cloth and protruded from the younglings back.

-0-0-0

When Demona awoke she could sense dawn mere hours away, yet for the first time in years she awoke content, there was a warm feeling close to her chest her wings caped over a scaly bundle of black and shining blue, gasping Demona looked down to see a _gargoyle_ hatchelling with a scar across his temple nuzzling her for warmth, for the first time in centuries Demona felt, if not happy then content. The tiny hatchelling looked up at her with those same green eyes the _human_ like child had been gifted with, now those same eyes belonged to her blessed child.

Although she was not completely sure what had happened dawn was fast approaching and she could not afford to stay here for long, she needed to get out of the country Xanatos realised she was gone and not in an area he could track or control her actions. In her struggle to restore her clan she had made many unsavoury deals with humans but since the mistake and treachery of Macbeth Xanatos was the closest thing she had to an ally. He had agreed to begin transporting her castle stone by stone to the heart of his monetary empire.

Pulling her new hatchelling close to her, Demona used the amulet of Anubis to take power from her deaths to enhance herself to a sate that would allow herself to climb back to the sky. She wished she could use the amulets of Osiris and Anubis in conjunction but the only time she had tried uniting amulets before was the amulet of Zombi (god of the dead) and the amulet of Hephaestus she had accidentally resurrected a dead forest of apes and had made the lust after living flesh, finally to end her catastrophic magical accident she had used a time ageing spell to make the reanimated corpses older and then used an ice spell to freeze the village in a mountain.

Thinking of all that power wasted made her think of her new hatchling, he was radiant with power and… yes that was it, Radiance was a perfect name. Raiden for short, her hatchling would become strong and once her mate was awake once more she would have one more to help sway him to the truth of the humans' evil. With that thought firmly set in her twisted mind she took herself further and faster into the skies.

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	2. 1997

**Melted By a Child**

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**Chapter 1 - 1997:**

It had been many years since the Potter boy had been deposited at No.4 Private Drive, the once smart house was now old and decrepit, and no one had graced its rooms in over nine years. The Dursleys had long since departed for the more luxurious manor houses of America, and only Vernon Dursley had known of the events that transpired the night of the Dark Lords defeat. While Mr Dursley had been loyal to his country he'd seen to many changes over the years to be happy with the way it was changing, in fact the colonials seemed to be getting the right idea of how to run the world properly.

The Great British Empire had begun to crumble, first the strange terrorist attacks and then the personal attack on his house had made the man certain there needed to be changes. When he was first approached by the job offer from a Pharmaceutical cooperation of all things he had scoft and thrown the invitation on his desk. However the events of that night had swayed his mind and it seemed to be for the better when he had discovered what the building constructed was to be for.

Umbrella were surprise that he had decided to except their offer but upon meeting one of the lead share holders an old man, Lord Spencer, Vernon Dursley decided he definitely made the right decision. The World was changing and with Umbrella at the helm you were either with them or in the cooperation's way. After his first meeting for the construction project Vernon had the distinct pleasure of pointing out some flaws in the plan and also some methods of reducing cost, he had wanted to prove his worth to the cooperation and succeeded. The initial departments just wanted more money to expand side projects and their own pockets but Vernon Dursley was a man of patience, he was moving up in the world and he'd be damned if his ambition was halted by selfish greed.

As Vernon's value increased he was assigned a body guard, as he continued construction of the underground facility and kept the program constantly ahead of schedule his worth continued to increase and soon added benefits were on-hand for the advancing business man. Four years into the project he was assigned a protection detail for visiting the labs he had demanded to oversee; if they were to keep hazardous chemicals in then the underground air-system might need to be revised.

While he had been in the lab he had spotted a man carrying a case with a biohazard symbol on, alerting his guard detail Mr Dursley had been alarmed when the man brought out a gun and shot each member quickly and precisely one bullet for each member, spotting the gun the assailant was holding to be an older six-shooter service revolver, Vernon had raced towards the man and punched him swiftly in the face. Going down quickly Vernon had removed the case and headed back to his guards, to his delight the shorter black masked guard was still breathing. Moving the mask of the mans face to see if he could render help he had been astonished to see the face of a young women, barely out of her teens with dark hair in a ponytail and a few strands framing her face.

He had next winced as the teen fired an automatic close to his hip, he had turned to see the body of the assailant falling to the ground with a bullet hole in his head; brain-matter splattered the floor. After the incident, the company promoted Vernon again and assigned the bodyguard, who introduced herself as Rain Ocampo, to his family's protection. On the fifth year of the project Vernon completed the underground complex at 4:35 on the 4th of June 1994. What impressed his employers further was Vernon had apparently chosen to work through a day usually regarded as an American holiday, Independence Day, being British the only mention of the day he'd seen before was in reading the book, Independence Day and had assumed from the book that the holiday was on the 5th. Vernon had been planning on making it a surprise and letting them have the day off to finish in celebrations.

With this and his repeated loyalty to the cooperation Umbrella decided to reveal the most important reason for the facilities construction, the Tyrant Virus also known as the T-Virus or King Virus. Mr Dursley received a lecture on it from Lord Spencer himself who explained the benefits of the virus; Vernon personally liked the possibilities of Immortality but the aptitude for removing the more dangerous diseases for affecting the human body. As a conclusion to proving his loyalty Vernon was shown to a room where a man was being kept, he had been involved in the plans to steal the T-Virus from the lab Vernon had been investigating. Lord Spencer told him it was a test of loyalty and handed Vernon a gun, after hearing the man's crimes and thinking of what he had planned to irresponsibly do Vernon had no qualms of putting a bullet squarely in the traitor's forehead.

Over the next following years Rain's presences eased Vernon's worries over a woman's competency and worth in the workplace, he had never considered himself sexist before but apparently his father's views on the world had been engrained into his mindset a lot more than he'd thought. Vernon's position within the company was now that of Head of Construction and Development he was one of the twelve department heads of the cooperation the unofficial head of the cooperation was Lord Spencer himself who's health had rapidly begun to decrease in the recent years. His interest in joining the cooperation to retake his fathers firm, Grunnings, was completely out of his mind. As a Department head he received control over the construction of every facility in the world run by the cooperation and while very busy this meant he likewise gained a controlling interest in the company itself. While controlling only a 7% share of the cooperation this was the same for the other twelve heads only Lord Spencer himself carried the 23% swing and could therefore trump any major plan by trumping the combining votes of three members. Vernon almost always kept his backing behind the Lord with little change in routine but when necessary he wasn't afraid to cut to the point and disagree if he thought a course of action could be disadvantageous in the long term.

One such action had been disagreeing with the Head of the Human Resource Department when he tried to suggest the unethical use of vagrants and drunks to be kidnapped and illegally experimented on to further the company's research on their viral weaponry. Vernon hadn't cared about the ethical repercussions so much, heck he hadn't cared about the use of the dregs of society, heck they mightn't be doing something constructive with their lives, helping society for the greater good. However Mr Dursleys idea was better, have them sign consent forms, after all if we know their not going to survive we can pay them safely and place clauses that upon their deaths the money is returned to the cooperation not only will they sign their lives away to us but it negates us being sued later on for experimenting on live subjects.

The actions he had taken that day had forever solidified his place as Lord Spencer's favourite and given him a more respected position in the company for his ingenuity and vicious aptitude for planning long-term. It was just as well for if Vernon had known of the events that would come in the next year he would have made a far more active attempt of getting into the head of the company's good graces, Ironically it was his honest care for duty that had elevated him this far and having to attempt anything else would have been seen through easily enough by the ageing Lord.

The Cover for the massive facility Vernon Dursley helped design was to be another manor house, the a different builder was brought in to turn the house into a treasure trove or architectural nightmares so that any unauthorised visitor would quickly fall to the traps in place. The Architect himself was invited to stay once the cover-project was completed and an additional small lab was added to the monstrosity of networked tunnels and passages throughout the house. In an attempt to suck up to his patron the architect of the house, George Trevor names his creation, The Spencer Mansion.

Vernon met with the Trevor family once or twice but could not compare the man's brilliance to his own. Vernon Dursley built drills and then planned construction projects, he liked being on site to personally oversee said projects, it had probably made him the most proactive member of the board other than the Head of the Genetic Division, Dr Issacs. George Trevor simply paid money and told people to build the insides the only thing he planned himself was how the front of the manner looked, to Mr Dursley that was an outright affront to his own skills. In a moment of sheer annoyance after Mr Trevor told Vernon that he didn't really understand the simplicities of construction work Vernon commented to Dr Issacs that at least they preferred to oversee their own projects and knew where things were.

Infuriated by this George Trevor demanded to know what Vernon was talking about; Dr Samuel Issacs merely replied that it was obvious that he'd get lost in his own house and that if he couldn't find where he was going, how would the people it was built for? Spluttering the man had left in a hurry, but again Vernon Dursley had unknowingly made a powerful alley that would be of great use to him later. Later on Samuel introduced Vernon to another friend of his a man in his late 40's by the name of Dr. William Birkin, the man was another geneticist and was happy to talk to someone not in the scientific field who was interested in his research and projects but not to the extent of wanting to steal them.

It was through William Birkin that Mr Dursley met the hard man Albert Wesker, Wesker was someone that had been built and shaped by conflict and seemed almost _designed_ for a greater purpose, his eyes were an unusual golden-brown and pale blonde hair was tidily combed on his head, always in some form of black suit the man was imposing on his own but once talking about science, weapons or ideas on improving the world he opened up dramatically.

It was to this group of men he divulged the details of the night in question, to Vernon's deep embarrassment Lord Spencer overheard his tale but he was surprised when the noble Lord escorted him and the group aside to talk more privately. Lord Spencer revealed he had once gone by another name the name of Gellert Grindelwald and had been a Lord from Germany, he had discovered a community of humans who could push the limits of technological and biological abilities to the point that it appeared to be magic. In reality they were a subspecies of humanoids that had gained the ability to access above 30% of the brain power, after Samuel explained to the others that the average human can only access 11 to 14% they were astounded by the abilities these people must have. He had sort out a way of identifying their power but found them too close-minded and practically unreasonably devoted to their _magical arts_ Lord Grindelwald had made it perfectly clear their abilities were not magical in nature but advanced in ways of science that were unknown to the world at large.

Though it was William who suggested harnessing their power it was Albert, who rejected the idea, the man had rightly assumed there was a reason no one else knew about their existence. The reason was that they had the ability to wipe the memories of those who knew of them or cloak themselves from sight. At the words '_cloak_ themselves' Lord Grindelwald had chuckled for some reason before waving it off as nothing important. Nevertheless Vernon was one step closer to finding out what truly happened that night, with the knowledge of other species of sentient intelligence on the planet Vernon found his whole view of the world changing. Mr Dursley was not someone who liked unprecipitated change, even when said change aided him it tended to confuse the cycle of his day.

A whole knew outlook had opened up to him and he knew it was up to him to keep his family safe, while Lord Grindelwald had expressly _suggested_ that the _magical_ community be left alone, Vernon couldn't help but wonder how bad the world was off if there was a whole group going around controlling peoples memories at a moments notice. A month went by and Vernon Dursley continued at his job but the knowledge he had acquired kept tickling at the back of his mind. His suspicions were furthered when George Trevor's family disappeared, supposedly they'd left to go visit a sick aunt but they would have had to have left via the main entrance and Vernon had been there all day overseeing construction of a new security sensor.

One good thing had come out of the installation it had given Mr Dursley a chance to converse with the chief of security for the HIVE, while not a department head Alice Prospero was in charge of the promotions and appointments of the security personnel. Chief Prospero had dark-blue eyes and short-shiny blonde hair, while the security chief seemed to have very little respect for the cooperation's standard uniform and took to wearing an Asian-styled red dress her professionalism on the job was never questioned. She was smart and knew the security procedures off by heart; she was well-versed in hand-to-hand combat and even taught instruction classes in one of the HIVE's spare dinning rooms.

When Mr Dursley had enquired for the leaving schedule he found that there was no record of the family leaving. Mr Trevor was currently not on site either but would be returning in a few days, the mystery was deepening and Vernon refused to back-down in his quest to discovering the truth. While he didn't really care about the families disappearance per-say he was concerned about the fact people could disappear from a building he helped construct – never mind that the HIVE was actually hidden beneath the manor – it was not something he was remotely happy with.

Events were beginning to reach a climax and Vernon Dursley just knew in his gut _something_, somewhere was going to happen.

-0-0-0-

"Aaargh!" Demona screamed in fury and flung the poisonous reptile from her shoulder, why Raiden insisted on keeping his conglomeration of pets across the castle chamber she'd never know. Ever since her hatchling had discovered his gift with conversing in that dratted hissing tongue he'd begun rescuing snakes and serpents from every corner of the city. At first she hadn't minded it was a nice defence to have in case of intruders but it really had reached the limit of her patience now. Over the last few weeks he'd gotten more compulsive likely ever since he learned that if he had enough Snakes he would be considered a Snake Emperor and that would force the 'King of Serpents' what ever that monstrosity was to have to serve him. Raiden had now taken to raiding pet shops, until he had discovered the wonders of Mr Xanatos's credit card.

Her small hatchling had also begun experimenting with magic, even more irritatingly, though not unexpected considering the potential she had seen in him Raiden had an unusual aptitude for magic. He had recently begun to experiment with shifting parts of his body into more human-like features and while he'd not had much luck past his head Demona was still scared her hatchling was picking up too many human mannerisms. She didn't want her son to become indoctrinated into the same capitalistic values that the human species preyed upon to usurp control of the natural world to this technological monstrosity.

That wasn't to say she didn't see the value of being able to blend into your surroundings she just wished that… well.. Demona sighed before turning back to her mission, returning her hatchling to his studies.

"Raiden!"

Raiden himself was a little busy, deeper into his 'lair' he was trying to work out why he kept being pestered by a dozen or so owls congratulating him on his birthday, asking his advice or including presents rich in magic that either were useful or cursed. Long ago his snakes had called him by the title of Living-boy at first he thought they were being sarcastic but certain more magically inclined snakes called him by another name Harry Potter. Raiden thought it was hilarious, and with all the owls delivered to him he never needed to worry about going out and getting food for his multitude of reptile friends. Being known as Harry Potter, Raiden wondered if he was some kind of great soccer like the legends of Merlin; the great Wizard had been known by a variety of names, Emrys being one.

Raiden's childhood had been particularly unusual, for one he was blue. This didn't bother him so much anymore seeing as his mother was as well but it had been confusing for him growing up around the tall white skinned brown-haired man, David Xanatos. David Xanatos headed his own cooperate empire and Xanatos towers was the largest of his owned structures throughout the world, while he was _only_ a human as his mother would say the man had built his empire from scratch and proudly claimed on more than one occasion to be a self-made man.

Like many of the people that his mother dealt with David Xanatos was obsessed with something, Immortality the secret of living forever. It was what made the partnership of his mother and the man so amusing to Raiden, his mother wanted to end humanity and Xanatos wanted to make it immortal. Well fragments of it Immortal, the world would be far too crowded if everyone lived forever. He had lived in the Castle atop Xanatos Towers all his life and now at the bright age of nine Raiden was desperate to explore the outside world further. The farthest explorations he had made so far were to the city pet-shops however and not to anyway more impressive.

Sadly his mother worried about him too much too let him explore a city with too many savages in it, when he had onced asked when he could go then, Demona mentioned that once it was sanitized then all of their kind would be welcome. That was another thing other than his mothers mad quest to kill off the only other intelligent species on the planet – Harry was still convinced Fey didn't really count – if she hadn't succeeded after nearly a thousand years of trying maybe it was time to give up. But with a name like Demona it was unlikely to happen anytime soon, his mother's fiery personality could stop even a passionate rant about the glories of science by Xanatos to a dead halt.

"Raiden!" But now he could hear her calling and he was pretty sure he knew what it was about, looking down at the dozen or so pythons he had recently _liberated_, thanks to the _generous_ contributions of Mr Xanatos credit cards his entire chamber was filled to the brim with snakes and serpents of all breeds and sizes. His mother had never been to keen on his indulgence in his extraordinary gift, but Raiden figured it was most likely his own obsession showing through the cracks after all he'd taken after the best obsessive's in the world.

At least he didn't have to worry about feeding them, Raiden consoled himself as another half-dozen tired owls flew thought the open window of the ancient castle.

-0-0-0-

Meanwhile a whole continent away a hidden war was underway, women dressed in white with multi-coloured locks of hair flew in circling motions around the form of a young boy. The boys name was Jeff, he standing to the side of the ruins of Stonehenge and dodging blasts of blue and light energy, thrown from the hands of the females in flight. Jeff was dressed in odd clothes even for this kind of activity and while there was no one around for miles that didn't excuse the fact he was wearing yellow striped pyjamas and a crash helmet of all things.

"Tom!" Jeff was getting frantic now as one of the shrieking women flew down a little too close making a grab at him again. Suddenly a shimmer of air displaced the flight of two of the screeching women and an egg shaped red object flew to the ground beside the boy, Jeff threw himself into the egg shaped object and the last the frustrated females saw of them was the other boy piloting the strange craft press what looked like a yellow button inside on the roof.

The strange ship took off to the skies cloaked from view leaving a dozen or so frantic flying warriors behind them. Once the ship had gained some distance Jeff slapped the other boy, Tom, on the shoulder causing the ship to swerve suddenly before once again slouching back in his seat. "Let's pick up some rocks you said, I know it's late but it won't take long and nothing can go wrong you said!" The boy Tom; gave his companion a frustrated glare rolling his eyes briefly but still maintaining his grip on the two-handed joystick control mechanism. Unlike Jeff, Tom had mousey brown hair in a styled bob-cut, the only feature the two boys shared were their white skin, though considering the recent escape a little paleness was to be expected. Jeff had blonde hair with naturally tinted dark-streaks styled to crop over the sides of his face, alert brown eyes constantly observing the world for any sign of danger in the fast moving landscape below them. Tom on the other hand was gifted with shining blue eyes and like his best friend was only starting to reach an average acceptable height.

"Well I didn't know we were going to run into Banshee did I?" Tom tried not to chuckle at the expression his friend gave him, "Are you telling me you believe all that stuff Mrs Murray says about her invisible Indian chief and the messages he passes on to her?" Mrs Murray was the boys next door neighbour, retired and in her late 70's the nice lady was considered rather eccentric, in recent weeks this probably hadn't been helped by Jeff accidentally zapping his Neighbour with an alien ray-gun that was built into their ship.

Also they recently had been having problems with a button they entitled 'The invisibility booster' that like its namesake made them invisible, the button kept malfunctioning though and even after the success that they'd had when Jeff's dad cleaned up the ship and accidentally removed the dirt clogging the power source generator they were still having problems. The two boys had enjoyed the Alien ships abilities and were enjoying travelling the world but it was a little dangerous when the device you were using kept running out of power unexpectedly.

Getting back to Jeff's earlier remark his friend smiled slightly, always happy to see the positive side to a situation, "Well you're the one who admitted it was a banshee anyway." The pouting-styled glare that Tom received was worth the crack about his friends disbelief in the mystical aspects of life, Tom personally found it hilarious that a month ago he'd been the sceptical, paranoid and cautious one while Jeff had been the adventurous sporty bouncing ball of terror. Of course ever since finding the space ship Tom had, had to open up his mind to new possibilities after all if alien space ships were real then why not mystical and mythical monsters of legend?

Thinking back to the ships discovery Tom couldn't help but reminisce over how far he'd come, the two boys had been camping out away from the class field trips main area and had found a sagging patch of ground. The ground turned out to be unstable and as it collapsed Jeff stumbled and fell into the chasmus hole, it turned out there were a series of deep tunnels in a hidden network that had been formed hundreds if not thousands of years ago. When Tom himself had slipped and fallen in after his best-friend he had the unfortunate chance to happen upon the long dead skeleton of a man in full Roman-styled armour.

But in their search to escape the cave it had been Jeff who made the fantastic find, while dirty the contraption was still visible and once climbing inside it appeared to be some kind of pod with buttons covering the surface. Harness straps were degrading but placed in duplicate across the back of the stone-like seats, Jeff had without a modicum of self control reached for the huge joystick and pulled it towards him before fatalistically pressing a button. There had been an explosion and the next thing Tom knew he was blinking the brightness out of his eyes. The strange object had shot straight up into the air and through the roof of the cave leaving a shower of dirt and rubble behind it.

After a few hazardous an experimental tries with the control stick and its buttons the two boys had managed to establish a modicum of control over the ship. Upon it they climbed out and observed the ship hovering off the ground, while still dirty in the fresh morning light they could both make out the front markings and as they watched the markings shifted into letters before their eyes. Soon the curiously styled squiggles were gone and English letters replaced them. The form of an eagle with spread wings was painted on the ships lower front and over the emblem the word 'AQUILA' proudly was emblazoned.

While the two friends were intrigued by their discoveries', Tom knew better than to trust this knowledge and discoveries to the adults, who would surely not let them keep such a discovery. Instead the two had hatched a plan to smuggle the craft home with them without alerting suspicion to their activities or plan. After revealing finding the body of the dead soldier the teachers had come under the impression the two boys were traumatized, using this to their advantage Jeff had then asked to return home early, while Tom stayed behind. The next night Tom had climbed into the ship, now patented Aquila and flown back to Jeff's house. Flying the ship on his own had let Tom really accumulate to the feeling of freedom being in the air granted and helped settle his mind over what the two friends planned to do. Once arriving at his friends house Jeff climbed into Aquila and they both set off back to the site, once there Tom climbed out and went back to his bunk while Jeff flew the glorious machine back home to his house and hid it before returning to bed.

The plan had worked flawlessly other than the slight dent, Tom caused to a lamp post when he stopped on the motorway to look at a sign. Once both boys were home they began experimenting but without a guide to the language of the ship randomly pressing buttons seemed a bit dangerous and though they discovered the invisibility booster on the second try, the first attempt set 8 fences, 2 sheds and a car on fire. In an effort to gain mastery over their strange ship the boys had engaged in a quest for knowledge that had surprised their teachers as they skived off previously favourite subjects like P.E to learn Maths and Latin. In only a few weeks Tom had gone from struggling Average grades to straight A student, more surprising was that Jeff followed coming in with B's and C's. This behaviour had of course been noticed by their teachers; more so since the boys' mothers had asked the headmaster, to keep an eye on them, in case the two friends chose to have a nervous breakdown.

Tom had taken to documenting his findings on Aquila, fortunately when it was discovered in his desk draw at school the Teachers had merely assumed he was doing research for a novel. In that same exciting week Tom had also acquired an extra exoskeleton arm glove that now only enhanced his strength ten-fold but reduced his pain responses' by a hundred. The green arm caused him a lot of grief trying to hide it but using his initiative Tom had passed it off as xema brought on by the stress. The arm had come in handy for dealing with a local bully when Tom had bent the bullies bike's handle bars back and forth with ease, the frightened older boy hadn't known what to think but had backed off a lot on the other years after the incident. Sadly the arm covering flaked and like a snake skin fell off at the end of the week but it was still an experience that the boy wasn't likely to forget in a hurry.

The next big adventure they'd had was when Jeff's dad came to visit, the ship had begun malfunctioning with alarming regularity, it even decloaked in the middle of a park! The people might not have spotted if from a mistranslation of the instructions Tom hadn't sent out a lightning beam to draw in a fuel source, what he got instead was poor Mrs Murray's shopping trolley. They'd gotten away with the accident, barely but it was still a close call and a few UFO sightings were reported that week. However due to the time they were paying to Aquila, Jeff had hardly seen his father and due to the man's absence in France for repeated cooperate business activities with Lenard Industries his sons show of avoidance had troubled him. To try and make up for it Mr Reynolds had cleared and cleaned Aquila of any messes he found until it was completely clean.

The boys had successfully explained away their ownership of the object by saying it was left over from a film set, with this in mind Jeff's dad didn't even think anything of the red-egg-ships buttons lighting up as more and more of the air-processors became unclogged. Mr Reynolds had assumed them to be air-inlets but after asking Aquila the boys had confirmed that Aquila could convert oxygen into a fuel source.

With more freedom in their travelling unlocked once more the boys set off exploring the outer-limits of their world and before long the planets beyond, they paid a trip to the earths 1st moon after briefly visiting Mars, Tom had discovered they actually had two moons but one only passed earth every 700 years, it was actually due back in the following year, give or take a year. If they kept their eyes peeled they could be the first people from earth to successfully land on their worlds' second moon.

Mrs Murray had been included in their adventures when they'd nearly driven the poor woman to a care-home when she thought she was seeing and hearing things. Luckily she had no one to talk to and had even volunteered to let them use an old clock tower in the middle of a small forest she owned, having inherited it from her husband, the boys would have taken her up on the offer sooner if not for the fact the old woman had kept referring to letting them hide it in her wood. Having a pile of stacked logs behind her at the time hadn't helped matters until it had been cleared away and she repeated the offer.

Extrapolating on the statement the boys had discovered her true meaning, but regretting the payment of letting her fly the ship. In one afternoon she had crashed through four chimneys', two bridges, nearly seventeen trees and accidentally set a clock tower on fire, ironically it had been the tower she'd offered to let them use. Mrs Murray had knocked the button when getting out to examine the tower there were photographs she hadn't seen in years, one that especially caught their eye was of a younger Mrs Murray with a blonde haired man wearing dark clothes. The kind lady was wearing a bright blue and green patterned dress and had one arm around the man while smiling excitedly into the camera.

Another Photo showed a slightly older Mrs Murray with her hand on a young girls shoulder. The girl was looking proud but seemed to be clutching at the older woman with something akin to despair. The final photographs showed black and white portraits of what must have been family members and older friends but most interesting of all was a castle that showed a rich looking family standing side by side, on the back was the address of a Castle in Spain.

After the trip down memory lane was over the group had departed the tower and headed home for tea. It was sometimes hard for Tom to believe that all this had only happened in a month but the excitement of Aquila never seemed to die down, and now they had encountered a group of previously thought mythical creatures, Banshee. What ever happened next Tom wondered after all if Banshee are real, what else might be? However for now he had to settle for calming down Jeff who looked close to having an aneurism.

-0-0-0-

"This has got to stop!" Absent-mindedly Raiden continued categorizing the recent owlment of goods to his location while lightly ignoring his irate mother, once Demona started a rant there was no stopping her so Raiden had near perfected the art of tuning out the boring bits. As this made up 99.9% of his mothers rants he didn't really have to pay that much attention, he was starting to notice that his puppy dog eyes didn't work so well anymore and widening them just made the glow white, the basic defence mechanism of any Gargoyle. He wondered if this meant he'd have to be more attentive to his mother in the future now.

It seemed to have gone quite and looking up Raiden found himself staring at a sorrowfully tired mother who looked like someone who had just discovered their plan to kill off the human race had failed and killed off her own instead. Come to think of it Demona had been trying to acquire some kind of Gargoyle artefact that would allow their race to be shielded from the spell but no other. Raiden really wished his mother would think her genocidal plots through better. Killing off all living species except Gargoyles would also kill off all food sources on the planet and remove the availability of oxygen without any plants or sea-microbes' to process it.

"Raiden I just want you safe…" Oh hear it comes. Raiden recognised the start of a guilt trip rant and customarily began mediating on his Oclumency walls again. Oclumency was a brand of magic he had discovered in passing and once you ignored the ridiculous notion of clearing your mind and started just building imaginary defence walls and traps it became a fun activity you could practise any time you got bored with ease. It only took him a few minutes but using the projecting emotions technique he was able to replay his expressions from a previous conversation and look properly chasted without further consequence.

A knock at the door disturbed Raiden's explorations into his world of Oclumency as the door open once more and Mr Xanatos appeared at the door, "Demona might I spare a moment?" Growling his mother turned gave him one last look of longing and then departed to deal with her employer's latest request. Turning back to his packages Raiden sighed and wondered for the first time if he should just send an owl back to tell people to stop sending them, but as he looked down to a Brazilian boa-constrictor he had liberated from an exhibit heading to England and saw it swallow an owl whole he shook his head and turned back to his work.


	3. Year of Passing

**Melted By a Child**

**-0-0-0-**

**Chapter 2 – Year of Passing:**

1998 it had been only a year but so much had happened, Mr Dursley had been right about everything coming to a head. The HIVE had suffered a break in security and a further experimental off-shoot of the Tyrant Virus had been released. The security system shut down the massive complex and killed all those inside to prevent contamination, pity because the scientists' had just that day celebrated in creating a anti-virus to the virus, but had not yet had time to change the security protocols in regards to virus outbreaks. The counter measures setup to prevent a further spread of infection were in-place and an investigation team had been prepped but because of the danger of the virus the team couldn't enter for another sixteen months to give the virus time to die down and the security system time to mop up any of the remaining virus carriers – though at the time Vernon had wondered what the point was if they were dead.

Unfortunately the chief of security had been caught in the defence system she herself designed and as the only person familiar in the lower levels of the virus she was not in a position to hold off a standard company investigation team. It had been an accident, the Investigation team picked had happened to still contain one of Vernon's bodyguards (and a close family friend) on their rota. Startled at being woken up in the middle of the night and due to the security procedures still not notified that an accident had occurred Mr Dursley had gotten out of bed, dressed in his suit and picked up his favourite gun (just because he had bodyguards didn't mean he was stupid enough to walk around without personal protection – this was America).

Rain had driven him to the helicopter point, the team itself were only told that communications had been lost and contact with the main system AI cut-off. Through originally objecting to having a senior member of the company accompany them into a possible combat situation they had changed their mind when Rain, Vernon's bodyguard had mentioned that he'd helped build the underground facility. While he was offered and extra bullet-proof vest he declined stating he was confident enough in his guard's abilities. This lead to Ocampo revealing that due to a mix up in the filing system she should have been taken off the teams' active duty roster. While the team had conversed as the Chinook (a military black stealth twin-blade helicopter was prepped for deployment) Vernon remained smug. What his guards didn't know was that the special suits of all main board members were fitted with full anti-armour-piercing protection shielding the wearer not only from standard bullets but from the aptly named 'cop-killer' rounds as well.

The journey to the mansion took only a few dozen minutes, Vernon Dursley had the first fright of his life in years when it was revealed that they would be jumping from the chopper to get to their target. The night had been dark but not bad enough that the few remaining mansion lights illuminated everything enough for basic visibility. They scanned the mansion and the entrance to the HIVE, avoiding the body signatures of the other occupants of the mansion and the fake lab beside it they continued to the Master bedrooms and the real entrance to the HIVE.

Instead of entering through the main doors the majority of the team choose to dramatically jump through the windows and surprise the two occupants of the room who were nearing the HIVE's secret entrance. Vernon however would have none of that and simply used his common sense unlocked the main door and walked through, Rain studiously following behind him. The surprising sight he saw was the leader of the team, a man who had ordered to call him 'One' was holding a wet blonde-haired woman who was blinking and looking stupidly away from him. When 'One' pulled off his mask the bald head of an African-American person greeted Vernon the woman just looked strangely amazed before looking around, once more. It took Mr Dursley a few seconds to realize that the red-dressed woman was the stern and proud security chief for the HIVE, but she looked a total wreck.

Behind him one of the other Team members spoke out that the labs knock-out gas had been released and in some cases exposure caused memory loss. The poor woman's' condition explained away the team turned their attention to the other occupant of the room, swiftly feeling the man up, Vernon's bodyguard retrieved the man's ID, it told him to be a police man from the local neighbourhood of Raccoon City, but not his purpose at the mansion.

Forcing the security system open and unlocking the sealed doors Vernon half expected something to jump out at him, but nothing came, the darkness simply starred at him; and he at it. They had proceeded down to one of the HIVE's Train system elevators. At the time Vernon had not known that more of these elevators existed (though slower and far older models) they were stashed around the city in key areas to allow underground evacuation in case of an emergency. On board they had discovered a man hiding in a compartment, the man's ID revealed him to be a key researcher on something called the Tyrant Project, only Vernon had been aware of the reference to the T-virus and had wondered then about turning back. Fortunately or unfortunately he had said nothing and the team including their four extra passengers had continued on into the depths of the HIVE.

The first goal had been to reach the security systems main AI control server, it was protected by a corridor, While impatient to get in to the room Vernon had been tired and had stopped the team leader from carrying the supply box fully into the long corridor, instead it had been halfway in. Quite suddenly and without warning the door had tried to slide shut Mr Dursley had been luck he was sitting with his legs apart or he might have lost a very important piece of anatomy. Swinging his legs across, he had climbed back off the box and into the previous room.

At the opposite end of the corridor the team had encountered a single red line of light moving across towards them, automatically ducking to avoid the odd light the team leader was obviously surprised when he heard a hissing noise and heard a thud as the high horizontal beam continued its rounds. Turning the poor man had been greeted by the handle of his assault-rifle which has fallen off the support of his weapon, cut straight through by the red laser. Even till this day Vernon had been impressed by how calm the man's voice had been "Out. Now." As the others turned and fled down towards the hole which even now the door was applying more pressure as if it could cut through the box shaped wedge holding it open. As the next lines of red light appeared and began making their way towards the team trapped in the corridor the leader had bought time by forcing the beams to focus on him as he placed himself at the forefront of the party.

Proving his aptitude in martial arts, 'One' had followed through with a series of ducks, doges and semi-flips to avoid the deadly cutting lasers, this had bought his team mates enough time to clamber back out through the escape hole that Vernon had accidently provided. As cheers from the others multiplied the team leader gave a very satisfied smile and huffed from breathlessness, but the horror was not over and as a single slanted diagonal line approached the team-leader yet again it broke off at the last minute into a net, the AI was obviously done trying to conserve power and was just going for the kill. Eyes widening in horror the man had sprinted back as fast as his legs could carry him, the corridors end door had briefly opened fully again and the team-leader had leapt through the gap ignoring the obvious trap as the door slammed closed cutting the steel box dually in-half just as the laser net hit the end of the corridor.

A few minutes later the resident 'hacker' had removed the problem now he was not under so much pressure and this time wedging blocks purposefully in the corridor the team and guests had proceeded to the control room. Upon arrival their resident hacker had plugged into the system but before he could proceed any further with its revitalization they were stopped by the voice of a young girl. Mr Dursley had been shocked to see the state of technological advancement the cooperation had mastered, holographic technologies. He'd known their Artificial Intelligence experimentation was beyond anything the world had seen but it had startled him to how far the company really had progressed.

After a few ignored warnings and threats the system was re-initialized and their hacker detected movement in an area that stated cafeteria, considering the population of the HIVE amounted to the team and their guests to have found survivors was startling enough on its own. Vernon had been suspicious and it was probably that suspicion that had saved his and Rain's life, as they progressed deeper into the reactivated HIVE, Chief Prospero's memories seemed to be returning gradually and it was this that had saved her and most likely the cop from total 'devouration' too as Ocampo had put it.

Upon entering the supposed dinning hall they had encountered tank after tank of freezing bodies, Rain had heard movement and spotted a woman slouching towards her. Vernon had seen it too and as the stumbling progressed had recollected the words of William _"The Tyrant virus is just an animal it could probably reanimated the dead like those stupid zombies from the 70's movies, they'd stumble around but with no higher learning. Anyway this is all still just speculation the virus has never been tested on live humans before…"_ moving forward fast Vernon had raised his own gun and put a shot straight through the woman's left shoulder forcing her not only to stumble back but to show her face, she was missing a chunk of her face. It look like someone had taken a swipe at it with a sword or she'd fallen asleep and got it caught in one of the mechanical sliding doors.

Not hesitating a moment longer, Vernon tried to put a shot through her heart to end the poor women's suffering, ironically it was his body guard's unexpected interference that saved both of their lives. Rain had been shocked by her bosses cold manner to a survivor and actually putting a bullet in the poor woman, so doing she had prevented him firing off another shot by pushing his arm. The gun had still gone off but had caught and infected man in the face who'd been sneaking up beside them and preparing to take a chunk out of Mr Dursleys arm.

Recognising the situation for the horror that it was Vernon quickly shouted a broad ranging order to evacuate back to the train. As more and more of the reanimated zombie-like workers began to rise the team fell back to a lift and consolidated their position. The undead workers stumbled but didn't seem to die no matter how much firepower was laid into them. Finally one of the team managed to reactive the lift and the doors opened, he didn't even have time to scream as a surge of reanimated workers pulled him towards them and fell upon him tearing him to pieces, 'One' took the merciful route and fired a single round into the mans head before he could further feel the pain of being _eaten_ alive.

Withdrawing back to the stairs they had entered by Vernon had briefly been caught of guard Chief Prospero's shout of "Wch 't el nks" had been incomprehensible to them but with the explosion of fire later the meaning was clear, the remaining party members now one short dashed to the stairs and began to make their ascension back to the control room, with the AI girl off line they needed to re-assess the situation. Upon returning to the room and without loosing anymore of their party their 'hacker' reactivated the AI system in which he called it the RED Queen, apparently Red stood for Retired Extremely Dangerous and the idea of having a retired Queen serving the cooperation's best interests had been amusing, the girl had been built from the image of the Daughter of one of Umbrella's founders heir's Lord Alfred Ashford, his daughter Alexandria Ashford had her personality and memories imbued to make the AI construct more realistic.

Mr Dursley found it creepy as the AI had commented that while it had been necessary to kill off the HIVE's population to prevent a further spread of the virus it had also been incredibly fun for all the times the staff called her creepy. At this Vernon felt that he and the team shared a moment of incredibility over the moron who decided making a computer more personable would make it more reliable and wondered if shooting them would be too kind a fate for their idiocy.

Nevertheless a plan was formed to escape the HIVE, and seal the undead monstrosities behind them. The RED Queen refused them help until a remote access bomb was placed next to her chip, apparently the RED Queen came with self-preservation and wasn't too keen to get blown to bits, help had been offered quickly. Looking back Vernon still wondered if things could have gone differently if they had discovered the traitor in their midst sooner. The researcher that had accompanied them back into the HIVE had in fact been the cause of the outbreak which he gloatingly revealed to the party when he stole a side-arm off the team Captain, then holding them hostage near the train. Before he could get any further the RED Queen had apologized for not really having any intention of letting them leave and informing them she had released a 'Licker'.

Surprised at the unusual name and obviously not all his memories returned to him the traitorous scientist only had time to stare at a camera on the wall in puzzlement before spotting a red blob moving in the corner of his eye-sight. Turning his attention and drawing the gun on it instead he had opened fire, only for the creature to throw its self at him. The long tongue the creature possessed lashed out catching another member of the team, their 'hacker' went down next now only six of their party remained, soon it became five as the terrifying creature took out the traitorous scientist and began to tear into his flesh.

As it ate the 'Licker's' Flesh began to shift and its claws elongate, the body became longer and the muscles denser looking, not wanting to worry about what the monster was turning into Vernon had grabbed Rain and pulled her though the door. Chief Prospero had simultaneously dragged the Police man, known to the party simply as 'Matt' while 'One' kept his remaining pistol carefully aimed on the feeding creature.

As 'One' pulled the door closed the monstrous creature looked up from its _meal_ and darted towards the door, it was too late, and simply helped close the door faster adding its strength to the closing metal. The remaining five ran towards the train even as the metal door buckled and strained as the creature continued to rapidly throw its weight into the door. With the team-less captains help and security card the train had started up and begun heading back up the tunnel to the exit of the HIVE, Vernon wished he had been paying more attention but at the time he had ignored the thud on the roof. As the train neared the exit the captain came to assure them it would all be alright now. That was when a part of the trains roof panel was peeled off and 'One' was impaled threw the top of his head by the Lickers long tongue.

The poor captain only had a second for his eyes to widen before he joined the rest of his squad in oblivion, as the creature slung him from the train and into the fast moving tunnel ceiling. Jumping down into the train itself it landed on the two opening transport maintenance shutters; quickly the HIVE's former chief of security hit the open button causing the creature to drop towards the track. A single last lash from its tongue clipped the police sergeants shoulder before it fell in a blaze of fire and death onto the waiting tracks below.

Clutching his shoulder in agony, he fell to the train's floor near the hole of the Lickers demise, hitting the button again to close the shutters Prospero fell beside the man checking his injuries over as quickly as possible. The mans possible infection by the virus had brought Vernon back to reality, thinking further back to the taunts by the treacherous scientist he remembered the man mentioning the virus and anti-virus he had stolen were in a sealed metal case. Retuning to the compartment they had found the man in he spotted it hidden from immediate view to the side of the door. Picking it up Mr Dursley had been jolted as the train finally came to a stop, quickly departing the train the four remaining survivors of the expedition into the HIVE made their way back into the mansion above as the giant doors began to close from their timer-lock as the teams hackers' work began to unwind without his periodic reinforcement of attention.

Pausing to catch their breath they all had been stunned by the appearance of protective shielding covering the walls as a sterilized chamber had been established in the Master bedroom of the mansion, it seemed just as well when the Police man dropped to the floor howling in pain at the tiny tentacles of flesh emerging and spiralling up from the wound inflicted by the tongue of the now deceased 'Licker'.

As the collection team (having realised the mistake brought on by the break-down in communication) arrived to greet them, Rain lifted the detonator she had swiped previously unseen by Vernon, from her dead team mates and pressed it. Chucking the used cap to the floor she had smirked violently as Mr Dursley had groaned at her impulsiveness' at blowing up the RED Queen, he had decided to leave that out of the report, at the time he had been dreading writing. He was a bit surprised as the medical team grabbed not only the Police man, Matt but the Security Chief too. He had heard Samuel's voice stating that he wanted the someone in 'The Nemesis program' as he saw the previously proud security chief cry out, punch one of the assisting medics on hand and run aimlessly towards the infected man. Alerting Samuel Mr Dursley held up the case and presented it to him, "The Virus and Anti-Virus." It was these actions that yet again saved Vernon Dursley for a destiny he had not yet know he had.

-0-0-0-

Christopher Redfield was a tall, dark haired man; young and charming to all he met he could defuse a situation just by his presence alone. Of course his colleague Jill Valentine would disagree and not that he was just as likely to cause a disaster by running in without thinking first. Jill was in the same age range as Chris and was blessed with a slim body of refined natural and trained reflexes, black hair in a spider-drape style adorned her fair face but her innocent looks were always quickly offset by her temper. Both young adults were members of the Special Tactics and Rescue Search Teams known as S.T.A.R.S for short, Raccoon City felt it was necessary to have an additional support group adjacent to the police, of the city.

Christopher had to admit before today he'd never seen the point, not that he'd complained (he was getting paid after all) but it seemed so trivial. Patrols had been sanctioned but for the most part his squad still reported to the police Chief, Brion Irons. Chief Irons was the most sadistic torturous little bastard that Chris had ever had the displeasure of knowing, he constantly made lewd comments, concerning the women in the workforce and hung up exceedingly grotesque paintings involving sexual torture around his office.

The only upside to this was that it gave all the members of STARS equal footing in their hatred for their boss, in specialty their Captain. Albert Wesker, Chris couldn't help idolizing the man. One minute he would seem like Irons' most stringent supporter and then when the man was out of sight he'd torch a painting. Chris had caught him do it to the one in the main office right behind their chiefs desk, for some reason a copy of the panting had been replaced the next day, but the mode that it had put their chief in had been hilarious.

Another incident was when the Chief had made a budget cut to their ammunition supplies, he'd been trying to requisition all the ammunition in the station and then get in placed in central lockdown, Captain Wesker had helped pile all the weapons and ammunition into the safe then closed the door, while he was doing this Jill had (on the Captain's orders) been taking all the weapons and ammo out the back of the safe room from the false back wall that Wesker had arranged to be cut into it the afternoon before.

The Weapons were back in their usual spots and their irritating chief was none the wiser. Though for all the chaos they got up to Chris still had to admit the Captain was pretty cold, the man barley spoke to anyone though once he had seen the man greeted by a man resembling Chief Irons in girth but not in cleanliness. The Chief wasn't very big on hygiene but the man that the Captain had been talking too had seemed the epitome of high-class sophistication. It was later he found out from their units trainee medic, Rebecca Chambers, that the man he'd seen the Captain with was one of the board members of the Umbrella cooperation. The new trainee had been startled that such a man would spare his time for a lowly police force Captain but Jill had suggested maybe they were old friends.

Putting aside his Captains unusual social life Chris returned his thoughts to the problem at hand. In recent weeks a number of grisly murders had been reported by citizens around the forest area of the Spencer Mansion, the most recent were a couple of out hiking. The most disturbing fact about the murders was that in every incident the victims appeared to have been partially eaten, scarier still the coroner reported from the abuse on the muscles and tendons it appeared that the chewing of the throat had led to the death of the female from the couple which horrifyingly meant that she had been eaten _alive_ by her killer.

Nevertheless the team was assembled to do a recon around the mansion and the forest to see what could be found, unfortunately some moron in the filing office had gotten the assignment times mixed up and so instead of travelling out in the afternoon around 1pm they were instead being forced up around 1am and flown via helicopter over to a drop off sight. The ride could have gone better Chris thought but then their idiot of a pilot kept shivering and jarring the chopper from side to side. Apparently Rebecca had been sent ahead though how with her small size she was going to cover all the terrain in the dead of night Chris found he didn't know.

Upon landing a little way off from the mansion Chris noticed it was uneasily quite, another team was meant to be meeting them here but no chopper was visible, no patrols or area scouts the forest clearing was uneasily silent bar the helicopters blades turning. Barry a large set man wearing a dull orange shoulder suit moved up flanking Chris. "Something's not right…" Chris couldn't help but agree, there was something un-eerily spooky about this place.

Up ahead one of Chris's teammates had obviously found something, it appeared to be a dog, a Doberman to be exact. Jill had raised her flashlight, and then all hell had broken loose one of the new recruits had screamed, and the dog had leapt for him. In moments Chris's poor teammate was on the grassy ground rolling around desperately trying to shake off his attacker, without hesitation Jill raised her gun and snapped off a series of shots. The first shot hit the dog in its lower leg, the next in its right shoulder joint and finally one bullet impacted at the right angle to take off an ear.

The beast slumped with a whine to the ground and the aforementioned team mate, Joseph pushed the carcass off him quickly. As Chris got closer he could see why exactly the man had screamed, rotting flesh. The dogs' body was covered in it and bones were visible through the stretched skin. Joseph groaned and groped his injuries desperately as blood pored freely from the wounds, the solider needed medical attention fast or else, he sagged and fell still. A sob cut through the breeze that had started to pick up, Jill got to her feet and wiped any trace of tears from her eyes. "C'mon, we've got a mission to complete remember."

Jill had just taken a step forward when something grabbed her leg. "Joseph?" confusion was evident on all are faces, "Jill, back, now!" I turned to see the Captain drawing his own weapon and firing two succinct shots, the first took out the dog that had impossibly regained its footing and been waiting to throw itself at Jill and the second impacted the already deceased Joseph' s hand as it seemed to reach for Jill.

The breeze was nearly blinding now and the noise of the blades had picked up – wait blades? The chopper! Chris turned to see the teams' pilot rapidly taking off with their only means of transport for miles around. "DOOLY!" Barry's enraged shout mirrored his own as the man fled taking their ride with him. I turned just in time to see the Captain walk up to Joseph and kick the dead body cautiously.

"Sir with all due respect, what the fuck are you doing?" Barry was obviously as confused as I was but we didn't have to wait long as Joseph opened his jaws and made a biting snap going straight for the Captain's leg like some rabid mutt. "Joseph?" I wasn't the only one confused, our buddy had just died and apparently come back but… it wasn't the same he was acting like a weak version of that 70's Zombie movie producers creations all he'd need to do now is moan and… Chris had to stop his old friend as the man.. Zombie had just let out a gurgling groan; it wasn't quite a moan but….

Chris found he didn't need to wait for an explanation any longer and walked up to his once friend and put a bullet in the man's skull.

-0-0-0-

Jill's day had been pretty crappy so far. First she'd been called up in the middle of the night to go out to some godforsaken forest on the inner boarders of Raccoon City, then she'd had a teammate attacked by what seemed to be a diseased dog and then he and the dog had come back to life and tried to attack her. Jill was liked to think of herself as a capable solider and a useful member of the team and hated to be placed in the role of damsel in distress, therefore it should be noted that her abrupt savoir from her most recent attack firing off a gun next to her leg provoked a sensible response as Jill socked her partner in the jaw with a full on swing punch.

-0-0-0-

Reeling from the hit Christopher Redfield made a note in his mind, Next time Jill is about to get eaten alive, _let_ the monster try and eat her, she'll probably scar it, more than it her. Of course this put the troubling through in the Redfield's mind that he might have to encounter more of theses monsters, but that could never happen right? The growling coming from around them as he regained his feet proved him wrong – oh why did I have to open my big mouth?

"Move! Now!" Once more his stoic Captain shocked Chris into action and the STARS solider took off running towards the mansion in the distance, as brief shots were exchanged the party split up further only causing their four legged pursuers to split into a number of smaller packs for their pursuit. After what seemed like and eternity of running, the gates of the mansion were in sight and beyond them the giant wooden doors of the estate house itself.

Chris was the first to reach the doors and he flung them open with as much ferocity as he could muster, stumbling inside quickly he took a position aiming at the pursuing monsters, a quick series of shots and he slowed down the nearest pursuers, the squad Captain was the next inside, but in the distance Chris spotted that their teammate Enrico had been blocked and was heading to the side of the mansion. Jill was the last through the door only briefly pausing to give a sharp kick with her booted heal backwards, catching the Doberman that had leapt for her unawares as it was sent careening into its fellows. With a final role from her kick she was through and Chris and Barry took no time in shutting the doors and baring them across, outside the sound of scratching and pawing trailed off as the monsters gave up and left to chase more amenable prey.

Almost immediately each communicator made the noise signalling an incoming signal, "Its Enrico, I've found another way in theirs a grave-yard heard its huge and I can see a back access to the house I'm heading there now. You guys okay? Anyone? Hello?" Quickly Chris thumbed down the communicators over and started broadcasting "Rico! We made it inside the main entrance hall its big and well lit see if you can find it." After a second a relived voice sounded, "Chris, oh thank God I though I was the only one left for a minute there and hey wait whats' that? Oh my god Chris you've got too…." Enrico's startled scream and a buzzing sound filled the set before the transmission cut off.

Now only silence pervaded the mansions entrance hall as the survivors of the STARS team feared for their lives at what was to come.

-0-0-0-

Meanwhile in another part of the world a group of women all dressed in pale white with multi-coloured hair were standing around a massive tree. The tree portrayed flickering pink energy forms of part-stars on its branches and at the base a woman with pink eyes and long green hair that draped past her shoulders sneered at the others assembled before her. Pale skin gazed angrily down upon those around her and a whimper was heard from the crowd.

Her harsh cold voice struck out and several women flinched back as her eyes pulsed with power. The woman weren't just women they were Banshee and entire race of females bound and grown from the energy of the life tree, their mission was to protect it and save their blessed world from the evil of technology with its cold science tainting natures path. In recent years their more notable enemies the Vampires had begun to steal from the standing stones of their beloved portal sights.

The portal sights aloud the Banshee to leave their underground catacombs at any time and any place a standing stone was visible. However with the disruptions it made exiting more dangerous, in most recent months a red-egged shaped ship had been reported to be stealing fragments of the stones, upon arrival a boy had been found dogging the plasma blasts inflicted by the Banshee guards on site. Sh'lain a young white haired Banshee had paused the guards in the attack when it was proved only to be a child, unfortunately it turned out the child had an alley with the ship of metal and they had not been in time to question the boy for his actions as he jumped back into the ship and then shot off at high speed, faster than any Banshee's flight.

Sh'lain had been reprimanded for taking pity on the boys' appearance but with their encounter at several more sights and their further defilement of the Banshee's ancient monuments, Sh'lain had been stuck for her failure. She was already disliked due to her unusual tolerance for technology but she had recently spoken of its benefits such as medicine for curing humans, plants and animals. It had been pointed out the medicine was only needed because humans were abusing the natural order and causing there to be disease, famine and pestilence.

The leader of their race was Queen Mab, she was the oldest of the Banshee and had been mistaken for a fey on many occasions, much to her displeasure. Her direct daughter Sh'riayen had shoulder length purple face and was a timid parallel of her bold and demanding mother, she was also a close friend of Sh'lain. However from the called assembly it appeared that Sh'lain was about to be made a scape-goat for the failures of the court so far.

"Bring forth the accused."

Two of the Queen's key enforcers Shril'thighya and Shril'tayma grabbed the only white-haired Banshee and dragged her forward in front of the throne, which their Queen sat upon. Sh'lain you have fought against your Queen and disgraced your people with failure, but worse you have committed treachery and worse still… treason." Startled gasps were heard and Sh'riayen flinched before looking aside away from her friend. "For this punishment the crime is usually death however…" here the Queen paused looking pained, Sh'riayen looked up in surprise at her mother. "My daughter tells of your youth and the mistakes you have made are only in error of trying to prove yourself, you have far too much power in you for a youth-born and so your punishment shall be lenient."

Sh'lain had now raised her head in shock as she stared up at her Queen in bewilderment. "You are banished, and per the sacred rituals your name is set a-blaze for your treachery, you are branded Sh'lain Blaze now and sentenced to spend a thousand years among the humans, if you do not go mad from Science-sickness and go on a killing spree you will be welcomed back into our arms when your sentence is complete." Turning she grasped a pile of humans garments and thrust them upon the startled youth, at only a good century and a half Sh'lain was only slightly older than the century old Sh'riayen and able to adapt more readily to the new contraptions that the humans had designed but as her robes were stripped from her and she stood naked in front of her sisters Sh'lain wondered for the life of her how she was meant to make the light purple skirt stay on, or even get it on for that matter their seemed no way to get into it.

Finally through trial and error she slipped it over her head uncomfortably grimacing as the metal tag and clips dragged across her face, getting into the rest of her new apparatus was simple enough, before she could attempt to put on the shoes her Queen turned her attention back to her. Mab had obviously been waiting impatiently for Sh'lain to finish getting dressed and then get out but with all the trouble she was having getting changed into the odd human garments she was delaying the banishing ceremony from finishing. "Are you done yet? For someone who likes humans so much you sure don't know a lot about them."

In a moment of sheer lunacy Sh'lain felt her temper break and she lashed out at her soon to be ex-Queen "Well its not like you understand anything about them, after all it took you half a century to realise they didn't live in caves anymore, considering how often you've made us live in them you'd think that we have something in common." Sh'lain realised that she was probably no pretty certainly dead now the horrified expression on her friend Sh'riayen's face proved it though there seemed to be a heavy coating of something akin to admiration too.

"How DARE you!" Queen Mab floated from her chair, eyes literally crackling with energy as she approached Sh'lain on the ground, "Strip her! She will face execution for defiling our ways even in the presence of my benevolent mercy!" Furiously the Queen turned and began to stalk away. "Make your mind up either I'm in human clothes or not, going senile in your old age?" Sh'lain knew she should have kept her mouth shut but if she was going to die then she was going to go out telling her _Queen_ exactly how she really felt about her.

"Mother please…" Sh'riayen seemed desperate to intervene and Sh'lain was sure it was her close friend who had convinced her mother to only banish her instead of killing her outright. "No! I was willing to spare you and perform mercy but you are far too arrogant and self-destructive to our ways. However I promised my daughter I would show your mercy, and show you I shall." Sh'lain felt her heart stop, surely Mab wasn't actually going to pardon her? "You will be _allowed_ to be sacrificed to the Tree of life on the standing stones; you will even be allowed to wear your robe." Thought not.

-0-0-0-

Back at the mansion things had gone to hell pretty fast, the Captain had made an unusual order and had the STARS team _separate_ to search the mansion. It was more likely they could investigate and look for any other missing team members from their party or the original first team sent to investigate the surrounding areas. Chris had headed to up the stairs, Captain Wesker had taken the room to the right and Jill and Barry had been left to explore the room to the right.

At one point or another the party had met back up and discussed their findings, Jill had encountered a giant snake and with the help of Richard from the earlier STARS team defeated it, unfortunately the snake had been faking its end and lunged to swallow Jill, Richard had pushed her out of the way only to be swallowed himself. Jill had just enough time to register seeing a series of small round pins hit the fall when the snakes mouth and neck were blown apart from the inside where Richard had not released his grenades on being eaten. Jill wasn't the only one to encounter a terrifying creature, though Chris had been subjected to a nest of spiders.

At this Jill had laughed saying that as the girl she was the one expected to be afraid of spiders, but Chris had merely managed to counter with the fact that it had been the size of a whole room and had taken up the entirety of the ball room while smaller spiders (piano-sized) attacked him and tried to take him too it. With quick thinking he had shot down the age-old chandler and caused it to come crashing down through the monsters head killing it even as fire from the candles spread across the hairy body bringing it to death, if the damned thing was thinking of recuperating.

Barry had _enjoyed_ a similar bizarre encounter with a gigantic plant that's tendrils had lashed out trying to kill him, his defeat of the plant had been far less epic as he just poisoned it and when that didn't work poured oil into its water supply and once it had sucked up enough set the supply in fire with a match. He hadn't even had to get near it. To the others it was safe to admit Barry's adventure had been a total cop-out.

Exploring further into the Mansions depths revealed an extraordinary number of secret passages, and eventually a small lab. Once in the labs the trio moved cautiously avoiding the many monsters that sprung out at them, after discovering an elevator to a helicopter pad the trio set about restoring the power, it was harder than it looked as they had to replace a power-stick-core and its key ingredient was nitro-glycerine. Having two partners to cover your back was useful enough but still difficult while you walked slowly to prevent setting off the explosive mixture. Eventually they made it to the power room, they had only a few seconds before all the lights flickered back on and the emergency lighting ceased. It was once the trio were in the elevator that they noticed their were two top levels, but one was marked 'Restricted Access Only' in all the areas of the secret lab they had found stumbling zombies but never any actual warnings of rooms not to enter.

Barry not wanting to test their luck suggested that they carry on and leave but Jill and Chris had come too far to turn back now, they had to avenge the rest of their team from the horrors that had occurred to them. As the elevator doors opened and the trio stepped out they were surprised to find another lab, but this one had a functioning man in it, their Captain Albert Wesker. "Captain!" Jill had cried, Chris knew the situation was tense but hearing his stoic, professional Captain scream like a little girl and throw the vial of black liquid he was holding up in the air was hilarious. The man dived and just managed to catch the vial, but not before he hit the ground first though. "ooph!"

-0-0-0-

Wincing at the accidental blunder his subordinates had put him through the Albert Wesker quickly rose and tried to make himself look presentably dignified, again. All the Captain could think was thank god he'd disabled the Camera's in the lab first, if William had ever got hold of the footage, he shuddered before turning to his former teammates and getting ready to reveal his role. It wasn't necessary but he wanted to gloat, he'd devoted years to this damn project and he wasn't going to be stopped now.

Reaching for the activation switch of the first Tyrant-Drone Unit Albert Wesker smirked, he was one step closer to his dream as a new ruler in a new world order.

-0-0-0-

Seeing a team Captain get impaled by a bunch of claws is not the most pleasant experience, even if said man had just revealed himself a monster responsible for the deaths of near several hundred people. Even gloating he'd seemed sad as if he'd had no one to share his brilliance with for so long he'd forgotten why he did it to begin with. When he'd ordered the monster to kill them Jill had been the only one to move, Chris hadn't been able to. The man he'd admired since meeting, the cool Captain, the man he could always trust to watch his back had been playing them since day one. Grooming them to face this house of horrors as part of some sick experiment practically creating the STARS as part of a testing program.

Jill's quick thinking had allowed them to pile back into the elevator and head on up to the pad, on arriving the chopper for emergency evacuations had been there but was obviously already used, due to the lack of the flying machine. There was a large pile of disguarded weapons that proved useful when the Tyrant burst through the cement floor and swatted Barry into a wall. Picking up a nearby rocket launcher Jill had blown down her opponent quickly while Chris rushed to Barry's aid the trio huddled together as the Tyrant regenerated itself prepping up for the next attack.

A hailstorm of bullets collided with the monsters flesh as it was blown back and into the ground, James Dooley had returned with their ride just in the nick of time, he apparently had been circling after he picked up enough fuel and was heading back to find a safer place to put down in, but had spotted the explosions and come to see what they were. Quickly the tired trio climbed aboard and lifted off and way from the nightmare that was the Spencer Mansion, they still weren't quite sure what had happened back there but the trio knew one thing for sure, _everyone_ had to know.

-0-0-0-

Nickolas Logan was well known bounty hunter licensed to in the United States to hunt down targets and subdue them for the law, he could operate in areas that they themselves were suppressed in and needed licenses to enter. Nick was not so suppressed making him pretty popular with the law but universally hated with the criminals, while his prices were sometimes pretty high he _always_ delivered. Nick Logan was a tall man, well built and in his mid twenties. Pale green eyes adorned his rounded face, dark glistening brown hair and a trendy bad-boy bikers coat; light brown in colour adorned his person. Light skinned and with a perpetually blackened shirt the only really light part of the man's package was his maroon trousers with jock-straps to hold them up while engaging in more physical activities. Bold Black boots completed the image on the muscled Nick Logan's form and showed straight away this was not a man you wanted to mess with.

Nick Logan was currently standing in a dark day-light alley-way looking down at a tray smelling of un-cooked raw meat that had been haphazardly disposed off. Suddenly the man's phone rang, reaching into his left jacket pocket, Logan pulled out an old model still not versed in the ways of games and texting – the phone was basic, cheap, reasonably durable and made calls quickly, that was all Logan required off it. Flipping open the grey lid and extending the pull-out aerial for a better signal Logan waited for the voice he was expecting.

"Logan here," While Nick was pretty sure he was alone, when tracking a criminal (dangerous or not) it was always a good idea to be careful and cautious on approach, no need to spook the guy after all. "Yeah Cracker I'm on it, found the place easily enough and raw meat just round the back." 'Cracker' was one of Nick Logan's oldest and still living friends, though he hadn't sent he guy in years he kept in contact by cell phone all the time. Cracker was a hacker by nature and found the fact his name was Jack Cracker by his parent's act of wisdom and went by Cracker – Jack in school. The man had worked with Nicks father too, and Walter Logan had recommended the man to Nick if he really wanted to stay in the bounty hunting business – alive.

Cracker was a contact, an informant and a weapons and transport supplier all rolled into one, though the man was getting on a bit he had mentioned a nephew he was training up, the poor kids name was Dunstan of all things though Cracker still thought that the kids parents were being cruel Cracker thought compared to his ill-thought out name they were being saints. Nevertheless the apprentice could hack a defence net program fifty-times faster than Cracker but wasn't yet well versed in the more criminal aspects of the business; Cracker said he wanted the kid to be a kid before becoming a man. Nick couldn't help but think his old friend was just paranoid of the young whippersnapper usurping him before a planned retirement.

"It looks like Thrope hasn't lost his taste for stake tar-tar…" reaching down Nick picked up the evidence before placing it in the nearby dust-bin before covering the god-awful stench of rotting flesh. "Sucker eats _raw_ meat Logan, and he didn't just walk out of Longpark-state prison he took out seven guards, the feds want this guy in one piece when he arrives – though I'm pretty sure they wouldn't mind if all those pieces were attached." Pausing Nick sighed, sometimes Cracker showed how bloodthirsty he could really be but Logan had cottoned on by now this was a test to see if he was still up to the game of the hunt or if was slipping into the role of the predator a little too easily.

"You know I don't do killing, Cracker. I take em' down and let the feds do the rest." Cracker didn't take long to respond and like Nick had thought revealed his comments to be a quick test of faith. "Yeah Nick I know, just wanted to check you still had your head in the game." Chuckling at the complete lack of subtly his old friend possessed Logan caught a fly circling the bin and then holding it for a few seconds released it the fly flew up before heading towards an apartment window, obviously where the meat had been thrown from. "Get my check ready, this guys going down."

Exiting the alley and putting his phone away, Nick made his way up the apartment steps and walked calmly into the building. Unaware to him however he was being watched, not by his criminal target thank goodness but by a more elite group of people. The small observation platform had been set up for easy access, and to observe the capture of the suspect. The room was occupied by four people; firstly a man with an obvious native Indian background, dark skin and a ponytail of well kept hair with the traditional markings adorning his coloured face, as well as a few scares that looked like they were made with claws or knives. He was dressed in a military styled uniform with metal plates covering his legs and lower torso, a belt of small pockets was wrapped around his waist and a grumpy looking expression made his faces scars bleed into each other as he glared out at the screen. The man's name was Jefferson TrueBlood he had no true last name as when his tribe was destroyed he left while they rebuilt but he had merged his tribes name into an admirable last name, he'd felt a last name like 'True' on his own might seem a little weak to American culture, obviously at the time he'd had no idea of what celebratories were stupid enough to name their kids.

To his far right a cheerful man in light clothing wearing a pale blue shirt and tie was smirking; his arms folded, blonde hair matched with his attire perfectly and gave no clue to his job, it was almost like he was suited to bullshit for any situation. The man's name was Ferold Fritz; his parents also had obviously had a sense of humour. To his left a woman with short brown hair stood just in front of TrueBlood, a tight red suit fitted close to her almost hour-glass form while a white dress was visible underneath, as she like the others watched Logan enter the building the Camera switched to another to track his movements perfectly.

"Ooo I like him," the woman commented, it barely a second for the bulky blonde man to retort. "Big surprise he's male." A glare was sent immediately and a sharp "Shut up." returned as the pair seemed to prepare for a bickering session. "Quite this is the easy part." The forth member sitting in the shadows with his hands folded in a contemplative manor spoke next. Turning back to the screen they could see Logan had made it to the door. Taking out some blue-tak he pushed a piece of sting tided to a ball to the ceiling opposite the door, then used the blue-tak to lightly stick the ball to the ceiling as well. Then he ran round an exited the building quickly making his way back to the alley and the nearby fire escape.

Inside the room a bulky man with pink hair of all things was munching on a piece of raw stake. The ball lost its grip on the blue-tak and fell towards the door, making the sound of single knock. In surprise the man dropped the plate and rose to his feet cautiously. The ball bounced back off the wooden apartment door and swung back for another round, at the third knock a shotgun blast was the poor balls answer as the man revealed his weapon from behind his pillow. He only had a few seconds to look out the door stupidly as he stood in front of the window behind him before a smash and a crash as Nick Logan dived through the window catching the pink-haired man unawares and kicking him through his own television set.

"UrrghRAAGGHHH!" the criminal responded with a half growl, half scream of rage as he stood up and pulled the set from his face, surprisingly no glass cuts adorned him and he quickly threw the broken set at his attacker. Logan swung himself to the side and as he did spotted something incredible. He could see an almost transparent image of a wolf like creature standing on two legs in front of him the image was overlaid from the man and seemed to be holding the same stance as the criminal it was almost like they were one. In the observation room the cameras tracking the encounter zoomed in on the bounty hunters eyes and analysed the pulse of energy they briefly gave off.

"He's got the vision alright." TrueBlood commented, in the background the shadowed man smirked and whispered to low for the others to hear, "Just like his father." Meanwhile Logan was recovering from his shock just in time to dodge a badly swing punch, pulling the man down to the ground and blocking his arm failed so with a spin kick he slammed the man into the wall with another push the criminals head was pushed through the badly built wall surprising the man in the next apartment terribly.

"Alright you three get moving, I want this in hand within the next minute." The man in the shadows of the observation area turned his chair away from the other three and switched the screen to a new view of the area, scanning for traffic or other people out around midday and passing through. Meanwhile the criminals head was beginning to change and shift form, in a few short seconds the head had elongated and a wolfs snout was forcing its way out while metal bladed claws formed from the hands, the clothes were town as spikes and hairy ridges immerged upon the fiend's back. Giant teeth accompanied by the mans red hair spreading across his body turning a darker red while taloned feet ripped the heavy shoes apart the head roared and the startled neighbour shook in terror. Three fingered claws pushed against the wall and Nick Logan couldn't help but pause with the handcuffs ready "What is this!"

Nick jumped back just in time for the man-now creature to free itself from the wall and turn to finish its incredible transformation from human to beastial-like. It didn't stop him cracking a joke to try and deal with the situation before him, "the bad hair day from – " the creature turned to face him completely, "- Hello!" Roaring it raised its claws "Surprise.. Bounty Hunter." The creatures voice was thick and deep with an underline growl to each word, "Never learned to fight something like this, did yer?" Stomping slowly towards its prey their roles now briefly reversed Nick spotted a lamp with a freely visible bulb plugged in, as the creature leapt jaws open, Logan gripped the lamp and pushed it between the rows of sharp teeth. "Actually.. I did!"

The surprised creature bit down on the lamb bulb instantly a current was made and the wolf-like creature electrocuted itself. Grapping the cable from the lamb and wrapping it around the creatures jaws Nick Logan sighed in relief the monster finally subdued as it began to shift back into a more human looking form. "Just never thought I'd need it, so this is the first time it ever paid off though." Grapping a sheet form the coach Nick wrapped the now human looking creature – though still bad smelling – in the blanket before leading it outside the apartment with the cord still tied around its face.

Almost immediately a van with the local sheriff's symbol showed up, the Indian looking man driving looked down at Logan's captive, "Good work Mr Logan, will take it from here." The ramp at the back of the van came down and two people also wearing law enforcement uniforms stepped out. It was the woman and other man from the observation booth, both now in disguise. "I'm Jefferson TrueBlood, from fugitive collection and transport." Raising an eyebrow at the unusually fast response time of the police in this area Nick nodded and made to hand over the man-wolf, thing. The woman smiled, "I'm Mina Roberts, I was wondering if…" She was cut off by her partner "Seriously you've only just met the guy and you're _already_ hitting on him?" With an elbow to her partner, and an embarrassed blush to Nick, she turned and grabbed the prisoner hauling the criminal into the van.

However something strange had occurred to Nick, "Yeah how'd you know where I was?" The criminal let out a snigger at the suddenly panicked faces of his new captors. However it was Fitz who came to the rescue, "Oh we monitor all cell phone communications in the area when relating to a fugitives capture." Trying to distract the bounty hunter from anymore difficult questions TrueBlood pulled the bounty hunter aside to have him sign the paperwork for the registered capture of the criminal Laurence Thrope. "If you just sign here we can be on are way." Nick paused but something about these guys made him have to ask, "You do know there's something strange about this guy right, an almost animal personality." At this Fitz sniggered at the poor pun while Mina punched him angrily again for lack of discretion, thankfully for the agents Nick was paying to much attention to the commander of the transport to notice their unprofessional behaviour.

"Mr Logan I have absolutely no idea what you're talking about, if you'll excuse me." With that Nick stepped back as the van set off but something was still bothering him, quickly he ran to the fire escape and began to climb. He had reached the top just in time to see the van heading in the opposite direction of the police station and before he could wonder further it began to transform into some kind of small fighter craft, its fang like design and blue boosters glinted as the transformed van shot into the sky before heading off at top speed. Nick couldn't help smiling to himself "Yeah, sure you don't…"

-0-0-0-

Pam Baxter was a middle aged woman with a son and a husband who divorced her to go screw his secretary rather than her, their marriage had always been a little dodgy but they had started off well but then Richard Baxter had always been an odd man. He had never had access to much money but he'd helped support his family and with his wife's increasing agoraphobia he'd found it difficult to cope.

Her only real friend was Sandra Reynolds her son's best friends mother and their neighbour Mrs Marrian Murray, Sandra had black hair and was entering her early thirties, she was quick to find the most violent way to complete a task set before her, being a housewife had mellowed the woman but Jeff's dad was often away on business and predominantly worked out of his main offices in France. Mrs Murray was an old woman who lived comfortably next door, she was regarded as a bit eccentric by the neighbourhood especially after that business of thinking that Pam and Sandra's sons were in league with green-skinned aliens.

Pam had struggled to support her son and even with the alimony cheques sent to support Tom and herself; she still worried her son was too insecure and well 'safe'. However in recent weeks he had become more proactive and more outgoing and Pam couldn't help but feel pleased that he seemed to be leaving behind his outer shell and trying to experience life more proactively. Now though she had a problem, for so long she'd focused on her son and maintaining his happiness but now he was becoming more self-sufficient and she kept hoping that she could have someone too, a man in her life.

Ironically she had been talking to Sandra while walking in the park when it happened, the same man who'd sat down at their bench as the ladies stood up had quickly thrown his lunch to the ground when the incident occurred. Pam had been saying how she wished that life was like romance books where the perfect man sat down next too you and you fell in love at first sight. A robber had run threw the park and snatched Pam's purse from her startled grip, she had barely called out of its theft when the man tackled him, flipped him over his shoulder pinned the assailant to the ground and held up Pam's purse with the question "Is this yours?" already on his lips with a broad grin.

The two, after giving their statements had exchanged phone numbers and names his name was Allen Pritchard, he had cropped dark brown hair and was wearing a smart suit with a black tie. They had gone out for dinner and then after that he had chivalrously walked her home. Pam had been absolutely delighted, men with manners were so rare these days and to have one interested in you was another thing all together. She had told him about her Son from a previous marriage only to be scolded by Sandra later "The Truth? That's no basis for a relationship; honestly dear you're so naive sometimes." Disregarding her best-friends advice she had gone on to tell him more about herself and through her honesty had found he also had a son that was a few years younger than hers, Dunstan Pritchard.

Dunstan was ten years old with blonde hair and bad eye sight forcing him to wear huge square-like glasses to see, the boy was a genius with mathematics, computers and sciences, but completely inadequate in dealing with any social boundary. His father had bought him a laptop which he spent most of his time on, meaning even less time was available to talk to or try and make friends. When Pam had suggested the boys meet up, Allen had been hesitant but with some persuading had agreed it was a good idea to see if the boys could get on together with out all out brawling.

They had taken him out swimming and Dunstan upon returning had said he enjoyed it immensely the boys (Jeff had gone with them) were looking strangely puzzled by this but taking it in her stride. Pam had been pleased to relay the good news to Allen, little did she know of the terrifying events of the last day that her boys had suffered through, after all being blackmailed (successfully) by a ten year old was not a usual occurrence. She was startled as she turned to go inside to see a rather grumpy owl with a letter tied to its leg flying after Allen and Dunstan's car as they left the drive way, Owls in broad day light, carrying letters? she thought it was meant to be pigeons that did that.

-0-0-0-

Raiden has been checking throw the general flood of owl mails to him when he had come across a series of official looking letters, more worrying were he address posted on them, usually letters to him or Harry Potter only had the title on them but this had the address of his lab and even the room he was in. Turing the letter over cautiously he broke the red inked seal and slip out the letter with his transformed human hands.

**Mr. R. H. J. Potter, Secret Dimensional Lab IV, Castle Wyvern, Xanatos Towers, United States of America.** Putting the envelop aside he unfolded the letter, on the top head was the crest that had been on the ink stamp it was of a badger, a snake, a bird and a half-lion like thing, but more importantly than that it was moving. Each character seemed to be snapping or making offensive motions towards the other in total they looked like they couldn't stand to be in the same image as each other. Turning back to the contents of the letter Raiden read on:

HOGWARTS SCHOOL of WITCHCRAFT and WIZARDRY

Headmaster: ALBUS DUMBLEDORE

(Order of Merlin, First Class, Grand Sorc., Chf. Warlock, Supreme Mugwump, International Confed. of Wizards)

Dear Mr. Potter,

We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Please find enclosed a list of all necessary books and equipment.

Term begins on September 1. We await your owl by no later than July 31.

Yours sincerely,

Minerva McGonagall,

Deputy Headmistress

Looking down the letter he saw a list fading into existence on the paper;

HOGWARTS SCHOOL of WITCHCRAFT and WIZARDRY : UNIFORM

First-year students will require:

1. Three sets of plain work robes (black)

2. One plain pointed hat (black) for day wear

3. One pair of protective gloves (dragon hide or similar)

4. One winter cloak (black, silver fastenings)

Please note that all pupils' clothes should carry name tags, rune wards and/or protection charms

Please note that Illusional robes or transfigured robes are also banned and suspension still applies to the use of such items.

HOGWARTS SCHOOL of WITCHCRAFT and WIZARDRY : COURSE BOOKS

All students should have a copy of each of the following:

1. The Standard Book of Spells (Grade 1) by Miranda Goshawk

2. A History of Magic by Bathilda Bagshot

3. Magical Theory by Adalbert Waffling

4. A Beginners' Guide to Transfiguration by Emetic Switch

5. Transfiguration a Theory of Muggle Science by Nicholas Flamel

6. One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi by Phyllida Spore

7. Magical Drafts and Potions by Arsenius Jigger

8. Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them by Newt Scamander

9. The Dark Forces: A Guide to Self-Protection by Quentin Trimble

_Additionally for Muggle-born students they may wish to purchase 'A Basic Guide to Beginning Magic by Kerrius Kwikspell' and 'An Abridged History of Magical Society by Abraxus Malfoy', furthermore please note as part of the Ministry of Magic's sovereign decree, act 3 verse 4 page 1221 of the Ministerial Laws of Magic the unlicensed and disavowed book, 'The Truth of Magical Society History by Aberforth Dumbledore' is still banned for its vicious content discerning respectable purebloods of society. _

HOGWARTS SCHOOL of WITCHCRAFT and WIZARDRY : EQUIPMENT

1. Wand or other magical focus/foci (Purebloods capable of wandless magic are exempt, however most be capable for proving talent)

2. Cauldron (bronze, standard size 1) set (Must be charmed series – Charm applied (Neutrality Substance) )

3. Glass or crystal phials

4. Telescope and Sky chart set (Telescope must be magical in nature, muggle telescopes will not function inside the wards)

5. Brass scales (Muggle measurement devices will not function inside the wards)

6. Students may also bring an owl OR a cat OR a toad

7. Familiars are also allowed though a bond must be proved before they are allowed on the grounds. (in the rare case more than one familiar is bonded then the primary familiar will be allowed to attend with the secondary if pain is brought on by the link, if no pain is felt then only the primary familiar will be allowed to stay)

PARENTS ARE REMINDED THAT FIRST YEARS ARE NOT ALLOWED THEIR OWN BROOMSTICKS, However if a student makes a house team they will be allowed to use a school broom provided as long as it is safe and approved by their parent or guardian.

Raiden stared a little longer at the list and wondered, it didn't seem to be a prank as the letter was far too magical to have been a joke by his mother, she wouldn't put this much effort into a gift. For his last birthday he'd been given a human head that his mother had taken from a hunter that was trying to kill her – again. Still this did leave a lot of questions, if they wanted an owl in reply he could do that though, the school looked promising and he was sure that his mother would want him to go, learning magic was always something she enjoyed.

Preparing to send a letter in reply Raiden paused, it looked like he'd have to wait a little longer; the most recent owls had just been eaten by his serpents.

-0-0-0-

It had been a few weeks since the incident at the mansion; Chris had been in an absolutely foul mood. First the betrayal by Captain Wesker and then the refusal of anyone to believe their story, he admitted it sounded improbable, the living dead coming to rise, but they had no proof and no idea still what caused the events of the mansion. The team had been split up further and the whole incident was repeatedly written off, Chief Irons refused point blank to investigate anything and Jill was starting to wonder if the Chief was involved personally somehow with the events up at the mansion.

Finally after one refusal to many, Chris stormed out; he didn't turn up for work the next day, or the day after that. It was like he had vanished into thin air. Jill was worried that Chris hadn't mentioned anything to her or Barry but with his disappearance there was nothing she could do. As time moved on Jill became further frustrated until finally after yelling at her boss for being a paedophiliac coward who likes to suck of little kids she ended up on a leave of suspension. Meanwhile Barry had wisely left town with his wife and child not wanting to be near the madness of the mansion any more than he had too. With the only other witnesses of the true horrors gone Jill was left alone in a city that was falling apart at the seams, murder and rape ratios had skyrocketed. Not to mention the thefts and vandalisms on the outskirts of the city.

People had been going missing for days now and in increasingly large numbers. Listening to the police radio for any major news Jill only wanted to be proved right and eventually she heard it. "We've got a good dozen victims of homicide here and they seem to be moving still.." , "Masses of people seem to be returning to life and swarming the streets." , "All outside contact has been cut off, is this the end of days we're facing?"

With the last call Jill strapped on as much ammunition as she could muster and marched down to the police station, bursting in through the doors she spotted cops trying to tie up the zombies and nearly being bit themselves; quickly she open fire. One shot per target, one bullet per head, they went down easily enough, stopping in front of one of the joint-police captains she stopped trying to keep the smug look of 'I told you so' off her face. "Valentine, what the HELL!"

The joint-police chief was old and had greying hair on his head while his wrinkled brown skin seemed to tiredly fall on his face. "I told you to kill them you have to shoot them in the head." turning to the Caucasian male with funny brown-bowler hat and golden styled suit she took aim. "No Wait I'm not a zombie!" he was frantically pulling away from the handcuffs that were strapped him to the chair and in turn the dead-girl next to him. A single shot exited the back of the undead girls face, turning the gun to the man who was now sighing in relief he pushed himself away from her frantically, "I'm human man, human, oh shit, oh shit, oh shit…" the second bullet released from the gun broke the handcuffs perfectly setting the man free immediately.

"Oh thanks." Jill turned back to her astonished former Captain, "One bullet per zombie, now If I were you I'd get out of here." From behind her the voice of the bowler-man thanked her, "you don't have to tell me twice babe, by the way thanks for freeing me from that, my names L.J what's yours?" Smirking at the poor attempt of a come-on attempt Jill turned and walked out of the station only pausing to shoot a few incoming Zombies on the way. L.J took one look at the policeman, tipped his hat and then ran after the Jill out into the dangerous streets of Racoon City.

-0-0-0-

Leon Kennedy was not a happy cop, for his first day on the job in a new city this was not how he'd imagined it going down. For starters he stopped to look over the corpse of a young girl in the middle of the road, it looked like she'd had her throat torn out but there was nothing other than that to suggest any other attacks. Leon was new to the force but had gone through rough military training for the job, wanting to originally join the army he was denied due to his families' social standing and forced into the police force for slightly less dangerous line of work.

He had only stopped examining the body when he had felt shivers down his neck, it was the feeling he always got when something dangerous was sneaking up behind him. Whirling round quickly and raising his weapon he lowered it again slightly in shock, dead bodies. Well they looked like dead bodies, huge chunks of skin were missing, bite marks and bullet holes littered them and yet they were still staggering slowly towards him. An ominous groaning coming from them, "Stay back, I'm warning you I'm armed!" Leon didn't have much of a chance to see if they'd understood him for it was that moment that the young girl grabbed his leg and tried to bite it. Leon was sorry for what he did, but it was just instinct he kicked the girls head violently; unfortunately the neck was already weak from her death causing the head to be completely severed.

With the other undead nearly upon him and surrounding the jeep he arrived in but stopped to check out the corpse, he fled away from them heading for the direction he knew the police station was in. Spotting a cops car near one of the bars he suddenly heard a scream inside, rushing to the back door he was just in time to see it flung open. A redish-brown haired girl with pale skin stood before him, she was dressed in a pink jacket and black shirt and leather shorts, she was wearing shoes suited to jogging or running.

Leon raised his gun towards her head, "WAIT I'M NOT A ZOMBIE!" the scream was rather shrill but he supposed that being chased by the undead would give anyone a case of jumpy nerves if not, outright panic. "Get Down." The girl's eyes' widened, and she dropped to the floor, Leon quickly put a bullet in the 'Zombie' behind her before reaching for her hand. Taking it with a smile they headed off avoiding the others that had been attracted to the noise. Reaching the police car that Leon had seen outside he noted the door was open slightly, obviously the owner had tried to make it but hadn't had time, the keys were on the ground by the door.

Snatching them up quickly and sliding himself over the bonnet of the car Leon quickly gave decisive orders to the girl, "Get in." With out any objection the girl slid into the car shutting the door just in time for the undead to begin hammering on it trying to break in for the meals inside. Turning the key Leon, pulled the gear and released the hand break, the police car spun off into the night the zombies flung hither from the force of the escape.

"What is going on in this town?" Leon couldn't believe the absurdity of Zombies attacking people let alone rising from the dead. The girl beside him seemed to think the question was directed at her, "I don't know I came here looking for my brother, Chris Redfield, he's a police officer with the Raccoon City Police." Pausing for breath she slumped slightly in her seat and attached her seat-belt absent mindedly, "When I arrived the place was practically silent but then the clock tower struck and the dead bodies seemed to get up and start towards me, I ran from them but they were everywhere!" she looked bleakly out the window to her right and gazed at the passing streets.

Trying to distract her, but also keep her head in the game Leon thought it was a good idea to have her check out the standard extra weapon compartment, "Hey check out the pocket there, okay?" Reaching forward she pulled down the pocket and pulled out the gun, suddenly realising that he still didn't no her name Leon paused, "By the way you still haven't given me you name, I'm Leon, Leon Kennedy." Smiling as she aimed the gun in front of her pulling a heroic pose she replied "Claire, Claire Redfield." Just then a zombie wearing a policeman's uniform reared up form behind them and tried to take a bite out of Leon and then subsequently Claire neck. "Aaaahhh!" Leon swerved a corner he hadn't meant to take taking them back into the city instead of away from it, "Hang on." They swung round another corner keeping the undead man carefully off balance, nearly missing a fuel tanker on the way.

Spotting a lamp post at the end of the street and running out of options Leon yelled to Claire "Buckle up!" Leon gripped both hands with the steering wheel and forced his feet down securing his position. The police car rammed the lamp post at full speed, Claire was saved by her seat belt and Leon while heavily jolted was saved by his firm grip on the wheel. The Zombie was not so lucky and was sent flying through the air out the windscreen at full force into the lamp post. Sighing in relief the pair turned and smiled at each other, but then they noticed the lights in the mirror. The fuel tanker they'd nearly hit earlier was heading full speed towards them and didn't seem to have any intention of trying to stop.

"That Maniac's trying to ram US!" with that Leon threw himself free of the car while Claire desperately tugged at her seatbelt, finally releasing it she flung herself free and clear of the crash just as the tank impacted. The fire and crumpled metal lashed out for targets but other than the heat neither Claire nor Leon were harmed miraculously. Calling out to each other the two found neither was injured, Leon set about ensuring their survival. "Claire we'll meet up at the police station it should be safest there, okay!" nodding before realising Leon couldn't see her, Claire replied quickly "Yeah, meet you and any other survivors at the police station, got it." Smiling to himself at her positive attitude Leon set off, before pausing and realising he _still_ didn't know where the bloody station _was_.

-0-0-0-

On a high cliff out-looking the sea near the New York coast line a ceremony was about to take place, while storm clouds and lighting flashed overhead eerie screams sounded. Unlike the screaming currently occurring in Raccoon City these were not the screams of lost souls heading towards damnation but the screams of Banshee preparing for a ritual sacrifice. Sh'lain Blaze's time had finally come. Around her a number of sisters stood in a circle, the old stones were that of teleportation so that Sh'lain would find her energy returned to the life-tree without interruption. In a way she would die and be reborn, but her memories and everything that made her, _her_, would be lost to the tree never to be seen again while the reformation took place.

Meanwhile a little way off, a number of high-tech craft approached each had the red and black arrow symbol of the human alliance, adorning their hoods and each craft was currently engaged in stealth mode. The commanding craft was piloted by Jefferson TrueBlood himself, the second in command for the Alliance. The HA or Human Alliance had been formed fifty years ago from the efforts of General Rinker and Commander William Logan, it was created to defend Earth from the invading Alien tribes and keep humanity pure and safe from enemies. The Alliance existed outside the worlds governments and was known only to its members, entering the Alliance was something past down from father too son and had effectively kept its existence hidden safely.

Right now their mission was to safely rescue a Banshee who had been taken to freely speaking out against the attacks on technology and now was to be executed for her _treachery_, disapproving of this view the Alliance's chief of personal had recommended the Banshee's recruitment. It was not well known but she had aided the Alliance before by way of Commander William Logan when the Banshee Queen wanted to destroy a Nuclear Power plant and did not realise the repercussions her actions would cause on the environment. While the white haired banshee's involvement had been not entirely selfless it had reserved her, a post in the _good_-_books_ of the Alliance.

Since she had broken from the rules at the time she instructed them to call her Blaze by codename, she was therefore known more commonly in the records as Sh'lain Blaze. The Alliance did not understand at this time that an exiled Banshee was given the cursed name Blaze as in reference for creating fire, a blasphemous act in the eyes of a Banshee for fire is the spark of technology. Another reference would be setting the Tree of Life or life-tree ablaze, though it was slightly less known, meaning practically non-existent to the Alliances point of view.

Banshee seemed to ignore that they could fire low level plasma blasts of anti-energy from their hands and in mass groups could teleport, no Banshee had ever been discovered on other planets except earth, they were even rumoured to have evolved as an evolved species of humans. However mentioning this _fact_ to a Banshee was basically like saying 'here I am, come kill me." and was wisely avoided as such.

Nevertheless the elite units of the Alliance arm prepped themselves for a heated battle against the anti-technologically backwards Banshee, to free a Banshee. Yes this situation was completely new to them as well.

The young Banshee struggled against her bonds trying to force herself from the enhanced bonds holding her wrists to the stone slab of sacrifice. Arms folded in her dull white robes the Queen of the Banshee made her way forward. Unsheathing two stone jaded lighting-styled daggers from her sleeves the Queens eyes glowed near red in her anger, hair began flowing and flowing in long twisted swirls unbeholden to the power of Mab's attempt at a sophisticated demeanour. Without even commenting the Queen growled in her throat and made to bring the blades down on the indignant 'Blaze'.

Before the Green-haired Queen could complete her attack she was assaulted by a burst of bright blazing light from behind her, she barely had time to raise a protective shield when a flurry of stun-grenades were propelled from the hovering Alliance aircrafts that had crept up on the Banshee conglomeration. Seven of the twelve assaulting Banshee were taken out in the strike, Sh'lain still tied to the pilliar was powerless to resist the more brutal retaliation by her sisters.

The remaining, Banshee reached up towards their techno-enemies and their sleek hands transformed into deadly taloned claws, moments later their screams reached a crescendo of noise and the energy blasts of their race lanced out towards their targets, beams of blue powered plasma streaking towards the hovering masses of metal. Explosions sounded as the first Alliance craft was overwhelmed by the fire, the pilot took to bailing out as quickly as possible.

Done playing around nicely the remaining fighter-craft opened up with a salvo of more powerful rounds, meaning to actively seek the destruction of their foes, green beams spiralled down as more beams of blue lanced up and the battle field grew in size as more fire was brought into the fight. Meanwhile Mab, though briefly shocked at the interruption on her ritual, made to finish the deed but was taken down by a green beam blanching her from the side.

The Queen, made of sterner stuff than her subordinates recovered quicker but still was too slow to stop a Jefferson TrueBlood from blasting the first shackle off the robed Sh'lain before being caught himself by a low powered blast of plasma from the still recovering Queen. Quickly with one hand now free Sh'lain took to tearing off the other metal restraint and pulling herself free to safety in time to dodge another knife swing by her infuriated ex-Queen.

As Alliance shock-troops descended from their craft, the remaining Banshee sisters (without their Queen to guide them) began to flee for safety behind the stone pillars of the stone-henge replica. Taking positions around Sh'lain the troops began laying down covering fire on the fleeing screaming females. The four guards covering Sh'lain never stood a chance; the Queen raised her fingers and quickly launched out two beams of blue plasma causing the guards to crash into each other and to the hard ground.

Hoping to draw Mab away from the wounded Alliance soldiers Sh'lain took off at a flying run towards the cliff edge, the pursuing Queen ceased her energy attacks and retrieving her stone knives gave chase. At the edge of the cliff face it only took a split decision for Sh'lain to propel herself off the cliff edge and into the icy waters depths below. Not wanting to pursue when so many of her sisters were under attack the Banshee Queen hesitated before screaming a shrill retreat and darting into the sky to begin one last counter attack.

The attack probably would have ended the lives of a great deal of Alliance personnel, if it wasn't for the small egg-shaped spaceship that crashed into the Queens' side as it descended back into earths atmosphere on a very wonky heading.

-0-0-0-

Back in Raccoon City the power had begun to fail in the city as only the backups remained, in the central city hospital the emergency power was on however the power in the new divisions that Umbrella had assembled haphazardly were failing rapidly. As a counter on the life-support power reached zero the morphine's and other bio-agents began to slow as the unwilling patient was returned to self awareness. Alice Prospero awakened in a sealed white room, monitors and cameras observed her naked figure as she begun to subconsciously strain against the many needles embedded in her body.

Her hair had grown long in captivity though other aspects had obviously been kept under-control by care takers, obviously not found of any impediment of their view of experimentation for their_ special_ subject. With a scream the former security head awakened and simultaneously pulled free of the restraints and needles, quickly falling roughly to the floor. Unfortunately subjecting herself to more pain, the lucidness returning to her, gradually, left the former security head heavily disorientated.

The white hospital operating gown slipped from her form as its flimsily tied laces unwound, naked as the day she was born the woman struggled to her feet and stumbled shakily towards the only door in the white room. Reaching out the former security chief soon discovered the lack of handle on the door, turning her attention to the digital locking mechanism beside it she pressed the buttons anxiously trying for a release.

After a few minutes of fruitless beeping from the control panel Alice's frustration had reached breaking point, "JUST OPEN! DAMN YOU!" screaming her throat raw in rage the unknowing experiment punched the door with all her might – and was therefore surprised when her fist burst straight through the steel door and out the other side. Pulling her hand back through the metal Alice noticed that the cuts from the bent metal had already begun to clot and heal up before her very eyes. Not only that but the pain of punching the door and actually rupturing through it should have been phenomenal, but instead the pain had been fractional and lasted barely a second.

Cautiously the former chief of HIVE security raised her fist again and punched the door. A few seconds later a scream of agony followed by a series of frightful curse worlds followed, apparently she hadn't wanted to break out _that_ much.

-0-0-0-

Both Claire Redfield and Leon Kennedys' journeys were pretty similar, both had the same destination, both encountered the undead and other nightmares on their way, and both were experiencing their first time in Raccoon City and were quite well and truly lost having no idea where the City's police station main branch was located. In fact the main change between them was that Claire had been lucky enough to run into a man who was not only armed but had a capable body guard with him. Vernon Dursley was a man that Claire had expected on appearance to stand back and force his guard to do all the work, but Claire – while having inherited the stubborn streak all Redfield's possessed – hadn't inherited her families' inability to look beyond first impressions.

Rain Ocampo was very intimidating, but at the same time protective of both her charges. Vernon Dursley though only wearing a business suit was holding a gun, calmly in his hand while scanning the area unobtrusively for any signs of an ambush from the monsters assaulting the city. Claire had mentioned she was searching for her brother, a cop in the Raccoon City police force, this had prompted the trained solider to bring out a pad and check on her brothers details.

The redhead swore that when she got her hands on Chris she would kill him, and then use what ever turned these people into undead to bring him back so she could wring his neck for his stupidity. Apparently not telling Claire not to come to the city and making her think he was still there was meant to keep her from coming and subsequently keep her safe. Well it was pretty clear that plan had failed miserably.

The trio had so far successfully conserved their limited ammunition supplies but they also hadn't eaten in several hours, not to mention the sleep depravation combined with nerves, it was slowly taking its toll on the parties' awareness. In the mind of each group of survivors their individual futures felt unclear, but unknown to them their lives were connected in a grand design that would change the face of the world forever.


End file.
